for more information contact:
Elizabeth Crowe (859) 986-0868
or (859) 985-0641
for immediate release: Tuesday, April 3, 2001
The chemical industry does not want the American public to read a new report released today, titled "Behind Closed Doors." The report, released by the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, reveals ways in which the chemical industry has influenced policy makers and concealed from the public the health impacts of dioxin, one of the most toxic chemicals known to humankind. Citizens living near chemical weapons stockpile sites say new information on dioxins may show that the Army's chemical weapons incinerators, known to emit dioxins into the air, are an even greater threat to local communities.
Over the past couple weeks, the public has watched the Bush Administration roll back important environmental standards due to industry pressure, including carbon dioxide emissions, arsenic in drinking water, and right-to-know legislation on lead. Dioxin could be next on the chopping block. The Chemical Weapons Working Group, a national coalition of citizens advocating non-incineration disposal of chemical weapons, says that relaxed standards on dioxin could mean greater dioxin exposure to nearby communities.
Exposure to even tiny amounts of dioxin can cause irreversible health effects in humans. Developing fetuses and infants are the most vulnerable; dioxins travel through a mother's body to a fetus, and through breastmilk to an infant. Dioxin exposure is linked to cancer, birth defects, attention deficit disorder, infertility, weakened immune system and many other serious health problems.
In 1994 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency concluded in a draft dioxin assessment that U.S. citizens have already been exposed to an unsafe level of dioxin. Since that time, the EPA has found that dioxin is even more dangerous to human health, yet the agency has failed to release a final version of the assessment. "Behind Closed Doors" provides documentation of dioxin-producing industries' influence on an EPA dioxin review committee, and questions the ability of such a heavily-influenced agency to protect public health.
CWWG Spokesperson Craig Williams said, "Dioxin may be only one of the hundreds of toxic chemicals emitted from the Army's chemical weapons incinerators, but it is a chemical so toxic and so persistent, that any release is unacceptable." Williams continued, "There is really no such thing as a 'safe' level of dioxin."
The Army, its chemical weapons incinerator contractors, and state regulators have tried to downplay the effects of dioxin being released from its incinerator stacks. In a risk assessment for the Tooele weapons incinerator, the Army failed to consider the effects of its incinerator's dioxin emissions on breastfeeding infants and subsistence farmers. Similarly, the risk assessment for the proposed Pine Bluff, Arkansas facility did not determine the acceptability of dioxin exposure for breastfeeding infants. Williams said, "It is time for the EPA, the Army, and state regulators to fulfill their role in protecting the health of our communities and our children, rather than protecting the chemical industry's profits."
In addition to supporting elimination of dioxins, the CWWG advocates use of non-incineration technologies for chemical weapons disposal; technologies which contain toxic by-products. Several non-incineration technologies demonstrated under the Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment (ACWA) program could be used in place of incineration at any of the chemical weapons stockpile sites.
Copies of "Behind Closed Doors"
can be obtained from Center for Health, Environment and Justice.
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