Dioxins

Dioxins are extremely toxic chemicals that cause a range of health effects at levels hundreds or thousands of times lower than most chemicals. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, even average background levels in the environment can cause adverse health effects in the general population. Dioxin is a carcinogen and has been linked to birth defects, hormone disruption, diabetes, learning disorders, behavioral problems, reproductive difficulties, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and problems of the immune, nervous and gastrointestinal systems ^[1].

Dioxins do not occur naturally; they form when chlorine combines with organic matter at high temperature. Dioxins are a byproduct of many kinds of manufacturing, including paper bleaching and cement making. Dioxin is also produced by burning trash that contains the plastic polyvinyl chloride (PVC). In addition, when a product that contains certain brominated flame retardants burns, it creates dioxin.

Although dioxins are emitted into the air and find their way to our waters, very few people are exposed to dioxins via air or water. Instead, people are exposed to dioxins primarily by eating beef and other animals high on the food chain. Air emissions of dioxin settle out on grasses eaten by farm animals or in sediments that are eaten by fish. The dioxin builds up in fatty tissues and is passed on to humans. Beef, pork, fish, shellfish, dairy products, and human milk are the major sources of human exposure. Burn barrels, usually located close to the ground, tend to localize the dispersion of dioxin emissions, putting people who eat locally produced food at greater risk for dioxin exposure.

Dioxins can cross the placenta, exposing children prenatally. In addition, newborns can be exposed through breast milk.

The Willamette and Columbia rivers have levels of dioxin above the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) pollutant limits established by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). According to DEQ, a total of 463 miles of Oregon’s rivers and streams do not meet minimum safety standards for fish consumption due to dioxins.

DEQ estimates that over 100 pounds of dioxin are released into Oregon’s air and water annually. According to DEQ’s 1999 air emissions inventory, the two main sources responsible for 96% of airborne dioxin emissions in Oregon are some 200 wood-fired boilers used primarily by the pulp and paper industry (49%) and burning of residential garbage (47%). Backyard burning of residential garbage is still a common practice in many areas of the state. While burning of plastics is banned in Oregon, DEQ estimates that when backyard burning is permitted, a certain amount of plastics is still being burned.

Emissions of dioxin to water in Oregon come primarily from lumber and pulp and paper manufacturing, specifically the use of the chemical pentachlorophenol (which contains dioxin) in the wood treatment process. Regulatory agencies are failing to control most point sources of dioxin. Of the 20 facilities that reported releasing dioxin releases to the air and/or water in 2001, only one held a permit from DEQ for its release of dioxin.

Public policy solutions that will protect us all:

• Provide local alternatives to backyard trash burning and burn barrels. Where garbage collection services do not exist, municipalities should provide incentives for recycling and composting to eliminate the need for backyard trash burning.
• Ban all backyard burning or, at a minimum, enforce the law on burning plastic household waste and provide more alternatives to burning, especially in rural areas.
• Require wood-fired boilers to reduce dioxin emissions. The Oregon Environmental Council worked on a project to help make boilers in Oregon more efficient [PDF] which had the added benefit of helping to reduce their dioxin emissions.
• Include dioxin limits in all air and water permits for facilities that release dioxin.
• Fully implement Oregon’s executive order phasing out the discharge of persistent bioaccumulative toxins in Oregon by 2020.
  

What you can do to protect yourself:

• Don’t burn your trash, especially plastics.
• Eat low on the food chain.
• Avoid buying products made of PVC.
• Check to make sure that the fish you catch to eat is not on Oregon’s fish consumption advisory list.

^{[1] Washington State Department of Ecology, Focus Sheet: Hazards of Dioxin, 2001
[2] Ted Schettler, et al, In Harm’s Way: Toxic Threats to Child Development, 2002}