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Congressional Dioxin Hearing
ALERT: CONGRESSIONAL HEARING ON DIOXIN
DECEMBER 13, 1995
PHONE YOUR REPRESENTATIVE (202) 224-3121
December 6, 1995
The House Subcommittee on Energy & Environment will be holding a hearing
on December 13, 1995 in Washington on "Scientific Integrity and Federal
Policies and Mandates: Case Study 1 - EPA's Dioxin Reassessment. The
hearing is open to the public, but the witnesses who are scheduled to
testify before the Committee are hand-picked by the
Republican majority to downplay the health risks from dioxin.
The hearing will explore a number of issues:
- Was EPA's risk characterization of dioxin exposure, contained in
Chapter 9 of its draft report, consistent with scientific findings
contained in the earlier chapters and if not, why not?
- Why was Chapter 9, the summary and risk characterization chapter
written in-house and not peer-reviewed, while the rest of the
report was written outside the Agency?
- Is EPA's risk characterization of harm to humans from low
levels of dioxin based only on high levels of exposure to animals?
- What is the potential economic impact to the public from
regulations that may be based on this reassessment?
You can probably see from these questions that this committee intends to
call into question thefindings of Chapter 9 which state that, "Some of the effects of dioxin
and related compounds . . .have been observed in laboratory animals and humans at or near levels to
which people in thegeneral population are exposed." They will then ask why, based on these
findings, that EPA hasjust submitted a proposed rulemaking to the Office of Management and
Budge (OMB) toseverely reduce emissions from the incineration of chlorine waste
streams. This proposed rulemaking will have a significant impact on
industry, raising the cost of incinerating various forms of hazardous
waste. Industry observers state that some incinerators which cannot meet the
new standards, even with new pollution control devices (cement kilns),
may have to go out of business. This hearing was originally scheduled
for September, but postponed; the new rulemaking was sent to OMB for a
60-day review last week.
We are asking people who care about the continued poisoning of our
communities to call their Representative (202-224-3121), especially if
your Representative serves on the Subcommittee (see attached list). Tell
your Representative about dioxin sources in your community like
incinerators, paper mills, and chemical plants. Ask your
Representative to call and query the committee chairman, Dana
Rohrabacher. Why, if this committee is so concerned about Chapter 9 of
the Dioxin Reassessment, isn't Linda Birnbaum, the EPA scientist who wrote
the chapter and is widely considered one of the foremost experts on the
health effects of dioxin, being allowed to testify at this hearing? Why
instead is Mr. Kay Jones, a leading consultant to the incineration
industry, testifying? The current congressional witnesses are: Dr. William
Farland from EPA, Dr. Michael Gough, a consultant from the Science
Advisory Board, Dr. George Lucier from the National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences, Dr. Kay Jones, a consultant to the
incineration industry, and Dr. Thomas Starr, the principal from ENVIRON
Corporation, a consulting firm that the American Forest and Paper
Association paid to create an "expert" committee on dioxin that
exonerated industry and blamed forest fires and other sources
of natural combustion for the dioxin problem. Complain to your
Representative about how all of the non-government witnesses at the
hearing are industry-backed consultants.
We have forwarded our own list to the committee of witnesses we think are
qualified to testify on the issue. The list included Dr Linda Birnbaum,
author of Chapter 9 of the Dioxin Reassessment, Dr. Richard Clapp,
Director of the Center for Environmental Health Studies at the Boston
University School of Public Health, Dr. Arnold Schecter, the first
scientist to document dioxin in human tissue and food, Dr. Paul Connett
from St. Lawrence University, a national expert on the health impacts of
incineration, Dr. James Dwyer of the University of Southern California
who just published a study linking dioxin to heart disease and
cancer in chemical workers, Retired Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, Jr, former
Chief of Naval Operations who has been very active in the Agent Orange
issue on behalf of veterans, and Lois Gibbs from Love Canal, the director
of the Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste, who just authored a
book, Dying from Dioxin. These individuals should be added to the
witness list and be given the chance to testify, at the beginning of the
hearing, before the testimony of industry's hired guns and governmental
agency representatives. They represent the views and concerns fo the
citizens and deserve the right to speak first.
Jackie Hunt-Christensen of the Institute for Agricultural and Trade
Policy is circulating a letter to send to Chairman Dana Rohrabacher. You
can reach her at 612-379-5980 to sign on to the letter. Or feel free to
call Chairman Rohrabacher yourself; his staff person on the Science
Committee is Bob Palmer, at 202-225-6375. He needs to hear that the
American people will not allow this Congress to forfeit the health of
their communities for the sake of corporate profit margins.
Your Representative needs to know that he or she has constituents very
concerned about the dioxin issue in their district and that these
constituents know a dog-and-pony dioxin show is being staged in the
Congress to downplay the health impacts of this deadly poison so that
industry can avoid further regulation.
For more information, contact Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste
at (703) 237-2249, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy at (612)
379-5980, or California Communities Against Toxics at (805) 256-2101.
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HOUSE SCIENCE COMMITTEE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Chairman - Orange County
Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ) - Tempe, Mesa
Rep. Bud Cramer (D-AL) - Huntsville, Decatur
Rep. George Brown (D-CA) - San Bernardino, Ontario, Rialto, Fontana
Rep. Bill Baker (R-CA) - Alameda County, Contracoasta Coutny
Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) - West Palm County, Port St. Lucia, Ocochobee County
Rep. Harris Fawell (R-IL) - Dupage County, Cook County
Rep. Tim Roemer (D-IN) - South Bend, Elkhart, LaPorte
Rep. Mike Ward (D-KY) - Louisville, Jefferson County
Rep. James Hayes (D-LA) - Lafayette, Lake Charles County
Rep. John Olver (D-MA) - Pittsfield, Holyoke, North Adams, Amherst
Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) - Hagerstown, Frederick, Howard, Garret County
Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-MI) - Grand Rapids
Rep. Lynn Rivers (D-MI) - Ann Arbor
Rep. James Barcia ( D-MI) - Saginaw
Rep. David Minge (D-MN) - Montevideo, Willmar, Marshall
Rep. Karen McCarthy (D-MO) - Independence, Times Beach
Rep. Steve Largent (R-OK) - Tulsa
Rep. Robert Walker (R-PA) - Lancaster
Rep. Paul McHale (D-PA) - Lehigh Valley, Allentown, Bethlehem
Rep. Michael Doyle (D-PA) - Pittsburgh
Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) - western Philadelphia
Rep. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) - Anderson, Greenwood, Aiken
Rep. Zach Wamp (R-TN) - Anderson, Hamilton, Polk, Bledsoe, VanBuren
Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) - Beaumont, Galveston
Rep. Eddie Johnson (D-TX) - Dallas, Collin County
Rep. Thomas Davis (R-VA) - Annandale, Herndon, Reston, Falls Church
Rep. Barbara Cubin (R-WY) - At-Large
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If you contact Chairman Rohrabacher, any of the committee members, or
your Reprentative who is not a committee member, let us at CCHW know so
we can keep track of the opposition. Thank you.
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Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste
P.O. Box 6806
Falls Church, VA 22040
(703) 237-2249
e-mail: cchw@essential.org