Re: TAMPONS & dioxin

[Dale Lehman <dlehman@ameritech.net>]

Frederick W Stoss wrote:
> 
> Diane,
> people.
> 
> Dioxins and tampons may be akin to Alar and apples.
> 
> Fred

	A comment on the dioxin and tampon observation that Fred made. 			With
regard to how much dioxin would or would not leach out, it is little
more than wishful thinking unless you do the science.
	
We suffer a litany of environmental and health disasters that wishful
thinking  has left us and it remains to see if we will recover.  			
	
As for Apples and Alar,  suggest you read the articles in Rachel's
Environment & Health Weekly #530, #531, #532, #533.
http://www.monitor.net/rachel
	
There has been and continues to be a well funded industry disinformation
campaign to obscure the danger for children of chemical residues on
fruits and veggies. See John Wargo, OUR CHILDREN'S TOXIC LEGACY (New
Haven,Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1996)
	
That was the substance of the NRDC report but the media focused on
Apples and Alar and obscured the larger issue. In keeping with the
shabby quaility of what passes for science reporting in the main stream
press they also managed to miss the fact that the key ingredient in Alar
was listed as a probable human carcinogen by the International Agency
for Research on Cancer in 1982.

                         from #530	
	"Alar is manufactured by reacting succinic anhydride with
1,1,dimethylhydrazine (UDMH), a toxic component of rocket fuel.

	Therefore UDMH has always been a contaminant present in Alar.[4]
Furthermore, Alar degrades into UDMH when it is heated --as in
cooking apple sauce, or sterilizing apple juice for bottling --or
when Alar is digested in the human stomach.[5]  In tests of
carcinogenicity [cancer-causing power], UDMH proves to be about
1000 times as powerful as Alar itself.  So when we discuss the
dangers of Alar, we are always necessarily discussing the dangers
of Alar and UDMH combined.
	 For its part, Uniroyal has always played down the inherent
dangers of Alar/UDMH.  In one formulation the product was
marketed under the name B-Nine.  Benign, get it?

	The benign image of Alar began to erode in 1973, when a study
published in the JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE showed
that mice given UDMH at high levels in their drinking water
developed cancer of the lung, kidney, liver, lymph system, and
blood vessels.[6]

	A follow-up study of mice published in 1977 confirmed the finding of
cancer in the lungs, kidneys, and blood vessels of treated mice. Also
published in 1977 was a study of Alar's effect on
Golden hamsters, which reported rare blood vessel tumors in both
sexes, and tumors of the intestines in both sexes.[7]  Benign it
was not."

Dale Lehman