DIOXINS & FURANS

This is going to be one ugly discourse, and I’m not going to let up on the choke hold until I’ve said every last scary thing I want to say on this topic.

Dioxins and furans are some of the most toxic chemicals known to science. If science knows about them, it seems to me YOU should know all about them too. Dioxins and furans is the short name for a family of extremely toxic substances with similar chemical structures. [To shorten it even more, I will refer to them all here with just the word “dioxins”.] Most are neither man-made nor produced intentionally. They are by-products of chemical processes that use chlorine, like manufacturing herbicides, bleaching wood pulp for paper; and from incineration of wood, PVC, and waste products. The major toxic component in Agent Orange is dioxin.1

WHERE CAN I FIND DIOXINS & FURANS?
Occupational exposures can come from cutting, welding, soldering2 and other metallurgical processes; chemical manufacturing; forest fires; coal-burning facilities; agricultural application of waste sludge; pesticide application;3 building demolition;4 and many others. These extremely toxic chemicals can persist in the environment for years after the source that produced them is gone.5 This greatly assists the delivery system, ensuring that everyone gets a good shot at dioxin exposure.

And you can find them at an alarmingly high level in each of our bodies. We inhale them from polluted air, ingest them from contaminated food, and drink them in contaminated water. By far the best way to get a daily dose of dioxins is from eating animal foods (and consuming dairy products, fish, & eggs), because the toxins in the animals’ environment are concentrated in their fatty tissues, and as barbaric as this sounds, we then EAT that fatty tissue.

If you’re eating the typical North American diet, this is where you are getting your dioxin:

Chart from EPA Dioxin Reassessment Summary 4/94 - Vol. 1, p. 37
TEQ = “Toxic Equivalents”

WHAT ARE THE HEALTH EFFECTS?
Some dioxins are considered by the EPA to be carcinogens; some are hormone disruptors (which is a very big deal biologically); some are linked to birth defects, liver problems, learning disorders, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease; and some mess with the immune, gastrointestinal, and nervous systems.6,7

CONTROLLING EXPOSURE TO DIOXINS
Is it actually possible to control your exposure? Since exposure for dioxins is expressed in parts per trillion or picograms (one trillionth of a gram), I’m not sure how accurate the concept of controlling exposure is, but in an effort to allow us to feel like we have some responsibility in this, control measures are listed, so because I am an optimist, I repeat them here: Minimize the amount of animal fat you consume; eat more vegetables, fruit, and grains since they contain less dioxin than meat, milk products, and fish; follow health guidelines for fish consumption (because many fish are high in mercury, and dioxins and mercury tend to coexist) (http://www.ewg.org/safefishlist); don’t burn garbage, especially preserved-wood or plastic products; practice safer wood-burning techniques if you burn wood for heat (http://www.ec.gc.ca/cleanair-airpur/Wood_Heating-WSC1A217A6-1_En.htm); keep cigarettes and their smoke out of your life.8

NOW WHAT!? You know what? I don’t know. I don’t know how we survive this dioxin thing at all. There is a prevalent school of thought that “dioxin appears to be dangerous at ANY level, no matter how small.” This means there is no “‘threshold’ dose - below which dioxin won’t cause cancer.”9 The Chlorine Chemistry Division of the American Chemistry Council disagrees with this premise, basing their position on dioxins on what Paracelsus, in the mid 1500’s posited: The right dose differentiates a poison from a remedy. That is still true today for certain chemicals, but by no means can it be applied as a blanket statement or position about all chemicals. Is it possible that the chemistry we face today is as simple as that of Paracelsus more than 500 years ago?!

As always, my purpose is to present you with evidence to persuade you about the importance of eliminating from your life, the sources of toxins. We don’t have to be just passive, ignorant sponges for all the toxins of the world.

Citations

1. http://www.ejnet.org/dioxin/ ActionPA.org: Pennsylvania-based research, organizing & networking ceenter for the graassroots environmental justice movement, Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol. 106, Supplement 2 (Apr., 1998), pp. 715-722 doi:10.2307/3433825
2. The Chlorine Chemistry Div. of the American Chemistry Council
3. http://www.nyenvirolaw.org/wtc-index.htm [re World Trade Center demolition]
4. Nat'l Inst. of Env. Health SciencesÑNat'l Inst. of Health, http://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/dioxins/index.cfm
5. http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/minimize/factshts/dioxfura.pdf
6. Oregon Environmental Council. http://www.oeconline.org/kidshealth/toxics/air/dioxins/view?searchterm=fish
7. Minister of Health of Canada, 2006; http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/iyh-vsv/environ/dioxin_e.html
8. 10/28/03 Cancer Res. Wkly. 40/ http://www.ejnet.org/dioxin/nosafedose.html