[Dioxin-l] Open List?

[David Ross]

After my exchanges with Jon Campbell got so heated I decided I would
avoid getting involved in any further list posting.  But I find I
have to respond to some recent comments related to David Bell’s
postings.

First, for the record I am not an industrialist.  I have worked in
incineration alternatives, and I am fully desirous of a cleaner and
more healthful environment, just like all others on the list.  And I
know a bit about chemistry, combustion, and waste disposal.

My take on the more strident list members recognizes that they have
some very strongly felt views.  But can they be open minded to
suggestions that those views might not be fully correct?   Thus from
Mr Everston in response to comments by D Bell and me about naturally
occurring organohalogens, “. . imply that organo-halogens are found
wide spread in nature when they are not. They may exist but to say
they are wide spread and a necessary part of life systems is
extreme.”  

I must tell you that Everston’s statement is simply not true.  I
repeat:  it is just not true. There is at least one detailed review
article in a respected journal -- having nothing to with industry,
toxics, or waste -- that describes this interesting class of
compounds, that is wide spread.  

I would guess that most of the list members would agree that the
automatic mistrust of any comments reflecting some possible academic
or technical background that we see in some postings has no place in
the list.  

And I ask the list members to consider a comment by Ralph Ryder, “If
either of these two people (i.e. D Bell and me) had done half of what
Jon Campbell has to educate the general public on the issue in
question they would be worth talking to.”  

Unfortunately Jon Campbell’s educative activities are mirrored in
statements like, “Incineration is in essence a hoax, a trick by the
incinerator industry to buy their machines and technology, or at best
an ill-conceived attempt at recycling of the energy of waste which
played into the hands of the incinerator industry. Everything that is
wrong with landfills is doubly wrong with incinerators: instead of
dumping garbage into a hole, incinerators produce intensely toxic
waste that you must then dump into a hole, and putting the rest of
the toxic waste into the air. Most of the energy inherent in the
waste, which could be recaptured by simple reuse and recycling, is
lost.”  

I submit that that is not education, but in the very least a highly
biased view of an activity that has its bad points to be sure.  But
the statement is over the top, and in a responsible list it would be
challenged. 

So how about it  --  might we develop a genuine forum for an honest
exchange of ideas?  In the name of a straightforward and constructive
discourse, might there be some way people like David and myself could
offer comments that, while not in line with the beliefs of other list
members, would be accepted as genuine points of view with no
malevolent or hidden agenda, and possibly with some substance?  

Is there not room on the list for candid and open discussion with no
hysteria, and would we not all benefit from some mechanism where that
kind of interaction could take place?

Any thoughts about how it might be done?

Michael Oros

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