EPA Finally Releases Dioxin Study

A scientific advisory committee voted unanimously Tuesday to send federal regulators a long-stalled report that concludes dioxin causes cancer in laboratory animals and possibly in people.

After more than a decade of study, the Environmental Protection Agency committee findings could provide the basis for federal regulators to impose limits on dioxin that would be costly to the chemical, beef and poultry industries that have opposed them.

While agreeing that dioxin causes cancer in laboratory animals, the committee split over whether to classify the chemical as a known human carcinogen, as it did in a draft report a year ago.

Instead, the new version says: “It is important that EPA continue to try to limit emissions and human exposure to this class of chemicals in view of their very long biological and environmental persistence.”

Chlorinated dioxin is an air pollutant that comes from burning plastic and medical waste with chlorine. It settles in grass and feed, which is then eaten and settles in fat in livestock and poultry.

William Glaze, a University of North Carolina professor who chairs the advisory panel, called the report “a huge step forward” toward possibly stricter controls. He said its key finding is that “diet is the principal root of exposure” for people.