Two Questions: endometriosis & chlorine bleaching

[Joseph R Parrish Jr <JoeParrish@compuserve.com>]

Mike asked:

"1) How established is the link between dioxin and endometriosis?  Should
it
be referred to as a "probable" link or are we more confident than that?

"2) How are dioxins formed when bleaching paper products and tampons?  Are
there dioxins contaminating the bleaches themselves or are dioxins formed
in the bleaching process?  I understand that dioxins are formed in
temperature ranges around 400-750 degrees Fahrenheit (200-400 Celcius).
Does the bleaching process get to that temperature range or are dioxins
formed some other way?

Mike"

Mike,
George Jeffrey has just given a number of references on the dioxin-L
listserve, 
and  I will just add some comments also
..
My thoughts are as follows: 
1) that endometriosis is suspected to be linked to dioxins.  No controlled 
double blind studies can be done for ethical reasons.  However, a study 
could be set up to correlate dioxins blood and tissue levels with
endometriosis,
and probably should be done.  It would be quite expensive to do, since the 
assays for blood and tissue dioxins are costly, around $2,000 per assay 
the last I heard, and at least many dozens of assays would be required. 
This 
study would be a way to indirectly confirm the link.  An even more
expensive 
experiment could perhaps be done on a tissue culture.  Another method would

be to correlate expected dioxins exposure and endometriosis, and that is
what 
I recall has been done, but I do not have the reference immediately at
hand.  
Greenpeace and/or the Environmental Defense Fund could probably supply the
data. 

2) Dioxins form when complex carbon based compounds such as are in 
wood pulp are treated with a chlorine based bleach.  The effluents contain 
considerable quantities of dioxins.  There was a newspaper report some
years 
ago about a small town in Tennessee that was downstream of a paper
bleaching 
plant and was found to have extremely high levels of cancers as the
stream/river had 
contaminated the town's water supply.  Dioxins were in the plant's
effluents that ran 
directly into the river upstream of the town, and they were thought to be
the probable 
cause of the cancers.  Greenpeace and EDF probably have many more examples 
of such occurrences.  A second source of dioxins from a bleaching process
occurs when 
bleached paper is burned in an incinerator.  When the EPA had the dioxins
road show going 
around the US a few years ago, I was at the meetings held in New York City
and Newark. 
The EPA "Dioxins Report" (final draft has still not appeared) meetings were
chaired by a lead 
toxicologist from EPA's dioxins research group in Research Triangle Park in
North Carolina, 
an engineer from our nearby Rahway, New Jersey, municipal waste incinerator
testified that their 
single biggest source of dioxins was from the bleached paper that they
burned.  That 
has been confirmed by a industrial trade group called the Chlorine Free
Institute.  
They have taken on the task of developing papers that are bleached without
chlorine--
in general they use either ozone of peroxides in place of hypochlorite. 
These papers are now 
available for sale, but are still a bit expensive.  However the price is
going down rapidly as production 
increases.  Recently that group was invited by the United Methodist Church
to hold a conference at the 
United Nations Church Center beside the UN in New York City.  Reps from
this group explained the 
reasons for their concern about bleached paper, such as I mentioned above,
and they showed a large 
number of samples of their products.  They are both US and Canadian
companies.  In addition 
to chlorine free paper products some of them sell chlorine free cleaning
products and other chlorine 
free products.  Some of the latter are available in grocery stores in
several parts of the US, they noted.  
The Environmental Defense Fund's last Annual Report was printed on
completely chlorine free paper.
There is one copier paper now available through office supply houses called
"White Shark" made by 
a major paper producer.   It is advertised as being "acid free", but its
main advantage I believe is 
that it contains recycled paper in about a 30 percent quantity that has
been rebleached without the use 
of any chlorine bleach.  It is competitive in price to other copier papers
and has the lowest content of 
chlorine of any generally available paper that I have seen so far.  This is
available in regular and legal 
size copier paper and also Number 10 business envelopes from either Staples
or Office Depot (only 
Office  Depot sells the envelopes and legal size paper, but Staples has a
the regular size copier paper, 
8 1/2 by 11, at a slightly lower price, the last I checked).  Probably
other office product suppliers have it as well.   
(If anyone else has found a competitively priced chlorine free or reduced
chlorine content copier paper 
or business envelopes please let me know.  Thanks.) 

Hope this is helpful.
Joe Parrish
NJ/NY Environmental Watch