ATSDR detoxifying TCDD by factor of 200

["Jon Campbell" <jon@cqs.com>]

Hi, folks,

     I'm sorry that I have not sent this before.

     The ATSDR is in the process of officially downgrading the toxicity of
dioxin, by upgrading the maximum tolerable dose to
1 picogram/kg/day. The EPA's dose limit is .006/kg/day.

      The new rule, called the "Minimal Risk Level" is specified on page 216
of the Draft Toxicological Profile for Chlorinated Dibenzo-p-Dioxins,
available from ATSDR, pub 099-5363.

       Public comment is due by Feb 17, 1998, to be sent to:
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
Division of Toxicology
Main Stop E-29
Atlanta, GA 30333

        Also send comments to
David Satcher, Administrator
ATSDR (spelled out, as above)
1600 Clifton Road NE
Atlanta, GA 30333

      We need to mount both a scientific and political (popular) campaign to
stop this effort, which I believe may have industrial roots (though they may
just be stupid or arrogant). They have thrown out the endometriosis studies,
claiming that the monkeys involved are subject to endometriosis "naturally"
(which is probably BS; I suspect they get endo from background amounts of
dioxin or other hormone disrupters in their food or surrounding, but I have
no data to support this at this time. Endo is NOT a natural occurrence for
any mammal. It is DYSPLASIA, a hallmark of endocrine disruption). They have
either accepted the cancer risk of 1 in 1000 to 1 in 10,000 [see Dying From
Dioxin, page 74] for 70 years exposure, or they have re-calculated cancer
risk to a lower value through some obfuscation (the document is very
difficult to read to actually get any information from it).

       We are in the middle of a cancer epidemic. One out of 2 American men,
and one out of 3 American women, will contract cancer in their lifetimes.
The rise in background and food levels of dioxin is a likely source of the
epidemic. Especially significant is the dramatic rise of prostate cancer in
men, which is hormone-related. There is an epidemic of Attention Deficit
Disorder, which is correlated with PCB and dioxin exposure during gestation
and lactation. There is an epidemic of endometriosis, correlated with dioxin
exposure: over 5 million women have it. It was all but unknown at the turn
of the century.

       The point here is that at current BACKGROUND levels of dioxin we are
seeing health effects. At the levels ATSDR recommends as Minimum Risk Level
(1 pg/kg/day), it would be acceptable for an adult human to have 1.7 million
picograms TEQ for a seventy year lifetime, or 25,000 pg/kg (25 ng/kg) body
weight. The EPA previously calculated that the lowest level of dioxin to
have caused harm in humans (that we know of) is 14ng/kg body weight. That
means that the majority of the population will be way over the dioxin
causation limit.

      Please send letters to ATSDR calling on them to ratify the EPA limit,
based on good science, of .006 pg/kg/day, or to set it to ZERO because many
or most of us are near or at the "limit" for harm. (Some scientist even
challenge this "limit". Each picogram of dioxin contains 1.88 BILLION
molecules of dioxin, each of which is capable of disrupting a cell.)

      Please take this note and re-post it or your own anywhere you think
you might be able to convince others to send in critical comments.

 Thanks
Jon