Re: A bit of history, for those new to the anti-dioxin move

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

   Hi,
  
  Those are precisely my thoughts on the subject. I have
  been thinking
  about the fact that, in the early part of the
  Industrial Revolution, when
  London, New York, Liverpool, and other early industrial
  cities were
  thick with smoke, the amount of bronchial asthma in the
  population
  was still very, very small. Lots of emphysema, lots of
  lung cancer,
  but few reports of asthma, whose symptoms are very
  specific
  (not chronic lung insufficiency, but acute
  sensitivity). There were
  also lots of incinerators - one in virtually every
  apartment building -
  burning everything imaginable (but NOT organochlorine
  plastics,
  because there weren't any!) SOMETHING
  in "modern" smoke is interfering in some way with the
  bronchial
  immune response. Again, this is a complete surmise, a
  total
  guess, that organochlorines (not even necessarily TCDD)
  might be involved. Of course, Sam and Alex, you might
  be
  right about heavy metals. Those were also absent in
  turn-of-the-century
  smoke. ...
  
  By the way: to Sam and Alex:
   I hope you two didn't take my disagreement
  with you about GP sampling the wrong way. I have a
  great
  deal of respect for your contributions both to this
  mail-list
  and also to the environmental movement in general. I
  just
  disagree about whether extraordinary (read: illegal)
  means
  are occasionally justified. And we needn't beat the
  stuffed
  horse about it more...
  
  Thanks,
  Jon
  
  
  -----Original Message-----
  From: Rebecca Leighton Katers <cwac@execpc.com>
  To: Multiple recipients of list
  <dioxin-l@essential.org>
  Date: Saturday, August 09, 1997 7:45 PM
  Subject: Re: A bit of history, for those new to the
  anti-dioxin move
  
  
  
  Regarding the question of a possible dioxin and asthma
  link:
  
  My understanding is that asthma is more than just
  a response to air pollutants entering the lungs.
  It's the result of an immune system malfunction.
  
  While evidence of a direct breathing response to
  dioxin may not be in the literature --- dioxin
  and other chlorinated organics are suspected of
  damaging the immune system.
  
  Isn't it possible that dioxin's damage to the immune
  system is making people more vulnerable to
  developing an asthma response to other
  pollutants?
  
  
  
  Rebecca Leighton Katers
  Clean Water Action Council of N.E. Wisconsin
  2220 Deckner Avenue
  Green Bay, WI 54302
  Phone:  414-468-4243
  Fax:  414-468-1234
  E-mail:  cwac@execpc.com