Quote
from Russell Hawker Town Councillor Westbury
Dioxin
is the name generally given to a class of super-toxic
chemicals, the chlorinated dioxins and furans, formed as a
by-product of the manufacture, moulding, or burning of
organic chemicals and plastics that contain chlorine. It is
the nastiest, most toxic man-made organic chemical; its
toxicity is second only to radioactive waste. Dioxin made
headlines several years ago at places such as Love Canal,
where hundreds of families needed to abandon their homes
due to dioxin contamination, and Times Beach, Missouri, a
town that was abandoned as a result of dioxin.
Dioxin - An Unprecedented Threat
We now know that dioxin exhibits serious health effects
when it reaches as little as a few parts per trillion in
your body fat. Dioxin is a powerful hormone disrupting
chemical. By binding to a cell's hormone receptor, it
literally modifies the functioning and genetic mechanism of
the cell, causing a wide range of effects, from cancer to
reduced immunity to nervous system disorders to
miscarriages and birth deformity. Because it literally
changes the functioning of your cells, the effects can be
very obvious or very subtle. Because it changes gene
functions, it can cause so-called genetic diseases to
appear, and can interfere with child development. There is
no "threshold" dose - the tiniest amount can cause damage,
and our bodies have no defence against it.
Unfortunately, according to the EPA, much of the population
of the U.S. is at the dose at which there can be serious
health effects. How did this happen? For about 40 years we
have seen a dramatic increase in the manufacture and use of
chlorinated organic chemicals and plastics. For chemicals,
it was insecticides and herbicides (weed killers). For
plastics, it was primarily polyvinyl chloride (PVC). From
phonograph records to automobile seat covers to wire
insulation to shampoo bottles to handbags to house siding
to plumbing pipes to wallpaper, we are literally surrounded
by PVC. When these chemicals and plastics are manufactured
or burned, dioxin is produced as an unwanted (but
inevitable) by-product. Dioxin is also formed in paper
bleaching, so that most paper products are contaminated.
This exposes people who use chlorine-bleached coffee
filters (most of the products available), as well as
compounding the risks of cancer of those who smoke
cigarettes.
Dioxin had been a little-known threat for many years near
factories that produce PVC plastic or chlorinated
pesticides and herbicides, and where those pesticides and
herbicides have been heavily used, such as on farms, near
electric and railway lines, apple orchards, paper company
forests. It became better known when Vietnam War veterans
and Vietnamese civilians, exposed to dioxin-contaminated
Agent Orange, became ill. It has been a hazard downstream
of paper mills (where chlorine bleach combines with natural
organics in wood pulp and produces dioxin).
Several towns and cities have become contaminated as a
result of chemical spills or manufacturing emissions, some
that needed to be evacuated. Love Canal (Niagara Falls,
N.Y), Seveso (Italy), Times Beach (Missouri), Pensacola
(Florida), and the entire city of Midland, Michigan have
high concentrations of dioxin.
Bizarre health effects, such as cancer, spina bifida (split
spine) and other birth defects, autism, liver disease,
endometriosis, reduced immunity, chronic fatigue syndrome,
psychological disorders, and other nerve and blood
disorders have been reported.
But in the last 20 years we have begun to burn household
and industrial trash and medical waste in mass-burn
incinerators. The result - given that we have disposable
vinyl plastic all around us - has been a dramatic increase
in dioxin contamination everywhere in the U.S. Dioxin,
formed during burning, is carried for hundreds of miles on
tiny specks of fly-ash from the incinerators. It settles on
crops, which then get eaten by cows, steers, pigs, and
chickens. It contaminates lakes, streams, and the ocean.
Like the pesticides such as DDT, dioxin accumulates in the
fat cells of the animals, and re-appears in meat and milk.
Dioxin is virtually indestructible in most environments,
and is excreted by the body extremely slowly.
The following item is on the Agenda of the next full
Westbury Town Council meeting on Monday 7 July 2008 at 7pm
in The Laverton:
"To consider the fact that the La Farge cement works in
Westbury has been issued with a written warning by the
Environment Agency for exceeding its permitted limits in
its emissions of dioxins and furons on one occasion earlier
this year, and to request and / or receive a full
explanation and reassurance from the management at La Farge
that they are doing their best to avoid any further breach
of the limits
Although
I confirm many of the concerns that Russel Hawker has about
dioxins especially when many of these nasty chemicals form
in downtimes when the monitors are off, in this incident we
cannot condone his comments as they were given without full
knowledge of the monitoring situation
