Commoner Cause

[Cdstelzer@aol.com]

BLOWING IN THE WIND

Studies show airborne dioxin vapors travels great distances
from their source

BY C.D. STELZER

(published in the Riverfront Times, June 19, 1996)

Dioxin found in the Great Lakes region originated at incinerators located as
far as 1,500
miles away from the affected area, according to recent scientific studies
conducted by the
Center for the Biology of Natural Systems (CBNS) at Queens College in New
York City.
The findings draw into question the reliability of long-established risk
assessment guidelines used by the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for rating incinerator safety,
including the current Times Beach
Superfund project. The research also contradicts assurances issued here last
week by Linda Birnbaum, head of
the EPA's reassessment on the dangers of dioxin. Birnbaum was in St. Louis to
address a conference of the
Society of Toxicologic Pathologists. In an interview following her speech,
she cited the dangers of allowing
dioxin-contaminated soil from 27 sites in Eastern Missouri to be further
distributed by the wind. 
Blaming potential dust storms, however, is not an accurate representation of
how dioxin enters the
environment, says former Washington University professor Barry Commoner, the
biologist who heads the
CBNS. "What Birnbaum was forgetting is that we now know exactly how dioxin
gets into crops, which is the
key thing for human exposure. It penetrates the leaves of the crops as vapor
-- not as dust," says Commoner.
"Any time you burn dioxin or any other chlorinated material, you are going to
get some airborne dioxin that
contributes to the health hazard."
Commoner's warnings are partially based on the EPA's own research showing the
average person is already
exposed to dioxin levels that can result in health problems, including cancer
and reproductive and
immunological disorders. Birnbaum was out of the country last Friday and
unavailable for comment.
"Our study, ... released a year ago -- (which) she must know about -- shows
that the stuff travels all over the
country," Commoner says. The CBNS Great Lakes data tracks dioxin from
incinerators as far away as
Florida. Typically, dioxin enters the food chain through crops and is passed
to humans through dairy products
and meat. 
Standard EPA site risk assessments, such as the one at Times Beach, are
flawed because they misrepresent
dioxin dangers by limiting their focus to a very small geographic area,
Commoner says. "The risk doesn't
come from any one incinerator, it comes from all the incinerators." 
Burning the dioxin-contaminated soil at Times Beach is actually contributing
to the problem not solving it,
according to Commoner. "The way you get dioxin vapor is out of an
incinerator," he says. "If you keep
dioxin attached to the soil particles and not able to get into the air it's
safe." The biologist recommends paving
over the contaminated soil or confining it in concrete bunkers. 
Meanwhile, the St. Louis County Executive Buzz Westfall has refused to meet
with opponents of the Times
Beach incinerator, citing a revised EPA risk assessment that again claims the
project is safe. In a June 10 letter
to incinerator opponents, Westfall called their concerns "alarmist attacks." 
Opponents had requested the meeting to explain factors that have been omitted
from the latest EPA report,
including data on incomplete combustion, fugitive emissions and food chain
exposure. The renewed
assurances from the EPA come after repeated electrical outages at the
incinerator, which allowed unknown
quantities of dioxin to escape into the atmosphere. 
The burn continues.