Re: dioxin in B&J's; incinerator in ROMANIA

[ttweed@wildrockies.org (Tony Tweedale)]

Absolutely not--a dangerous guess!

Schecter (SUNY Binghampton) et al 'Congener Specic Levels of Dioxins & DBF
in the U.S. Food Supply and Estim. TEq Intake'  _Env Health Perspec's_
102:962-6 (11/'94)

finds, as have other studies, that--accounting for widely varying
composition of diets--a US adult's intake via food is 0.3-3.0 pg/kg/d
--**SOME 30 TO 300 TIMES EPA'S DRAFT ESTIMATED SAFE (FROM CANCER ONLY)
DAILY DOSE OF 0.01 PG/KG/D!**  *****A NURSING U.S. INFANT**** IS ESTIMATED
TO CONSUME 35-53 PG/KG/D IN ITS FIRST YEAR--~300-500 TIMES MORE THAN SAFE
(AND THEIR DEVELOPING SYSTEMS MAY BE LITERALLY MILLIONS OF TIMES MORE
SENSITIVE TO HORMONE UPSETS, *AND* THE DATA GAPS ARE STILL MASSIVE, SO WHO
KNOWS BUT THAT THE REAL RISK MAY BE EVEN WORSE.  IT MAY NOT, BUT IS IT
WORTH THE RISK? (emissions and food levels have declined a bit since these
food levels were measured, but not  significantly).

Now, even as an adult, I have fears of POPs and of a fatty diet.  I view
the POP situation as a synnergistic driver along w/ the public's & the
"leadership's (??) greater fear of the effects of a fatty diet.  Ie, POP
activists should push the 'fat is bad' issue.  They should also focus on
persuading meat & dairy producers that the persistent, bioaccumaulative
POPs in their products are very likely killing people a may represent
another tort liability, on top of the dead certainty their saturated fats
are.

In short, I'm afraid I don't have sympathy for these producers, even if
they have great values such as B&J's, or have small-farm type cultural
values.   Don't forget, tho, the vast majority of meat & dairy comes from
large corporations, becoming more vertically integrated & monopolistic all
the time.  Dairy consumption for adults is unnatural (vs. other mammals
(tho I still eat cultured dairy--that sour bacterial flavor in cheese,
yogurt etc. transforms the taste enuf to overcome my conscious scruples, I
guess); and there's some evidence (design of human teeth) that human's
evolved moe as vegetarians than as meat eaters...  In any case, a
carbo-fiber-fruit-veg type diet is inarguably healthy; just as a daiy-meat
one is inarguably a killer.  POPs reinforce that compelling equation.
--


Note to Dioxin-L:  I see a now steady and incresing stream of info requests
for dioxins from incinerators.  If no FAQ is going to be made available to
save everyon's time,I suppose searching the DIOXIN-L archives is a good
substitute to get such info, using a few obvious key words.  Wonder if CEHJ
can (or is?) take on the responsability to simply refer the person asking
to the archives.  Or could a separate area on the web page be created for
this specific set of Q's?
---


>Sarah,
>
>You make a lot of good points here. I have not crunched the numbers, but I
>bet if you did, you would find that to consume enough ice cream to get a
>significant dioxin dose, you would find your coronary arteries plugged
>with the residuals from the fat you would consume in the process.
>
>I am going to make and educated decision and dioxin be damned, I am still
>going to have a bowl of Chubby Hubby a few times during the year.
>
>Fred
>
>Frederick W. Stoss, M.S. (zoology-aquatic ecology), M.L.S.
>Associate Librarian -- Biological Sciences
>Science and Engineering Library
>SUNY University at Buffalo
>Buffalo, NY 14260-2200
>716/645-2946 ext. 224 -- 716/645-3710 FAX
>fstoss@acsu.buffalo.edu
>SEL URL:  http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/sel/