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Dioxins: A killer additive in our food

Reports show that as many as 80,000 different chemicals are bombarding us in one way or another every single day.

For my money, one of the most treacherous of them all is dioxin, the name given to a group of persistent, very toxic chemicals.

“Dioxins” collectively refers to hundreds of chemical compounds that share certain structures and biological characteristics. Dioxins mainly enter the food chain as byproducts of industrial processes. To a lesser extent, they also come from natural processes such as volcanoes and forest fires. They contaminate land and sea, are consumed in feed, move up the food chain, and end up in the fatty parts of meat, dairy products and…

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  Why Is PVC Bad for the Environment?

These compounds are created whenever chemicals are created from chlorine. WHO adds, “Evidence suggests that, throughout its entire lifecycle, PVC is responsible for a greater share of the nation’s annual dioxin burden than any other industrial product…. Dioxin is known as one of the most toxic chemicals ever produced.” In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does not believe that there is any safe level of dioxin exposure.

 The Danger of Dioxins - Solutions To Keep Us Safe

To protect consumer’s health, the food and drinks industry test products at every stage of production for a multitude of hazards, from pesticides, to microbes and trace chemical contaminants. One group of contaminants that are getting particular attention are dioxins and related chemicals. Even trace levels can accumulate and persist in the environment and pass into the food chain where they can be extremely toxic and cause lasting damage. Therefore, sensitive and effective detection is imperative.

Articles of Interest

The Shocking Health Effects Of Agent Orange Now A Legacy Of Military Death

In total, the U.S. sprayed more than 20 million gallons of various herbicides over Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos from 1961 to 1971. However, according to the EPA, Agent Orange, which contains the poisonous chemical dioxin, was the most commonly used. And among those who were lucky enough to survive the trenches of Vietnam, the health issues – now generations later – have been a living nightmare. Agent Orange is linked to serious health issues including cancers, severe psychological and neurological problems, and birth defects, both among the Vietnamese people and the men and women of the U.S. military.

They won't go away

SOIL from a glass jar that has remained sealed for more than a century has absolved the modern chemicals industry of sole blame for contaminating the environment with dioxins. Chemists analysing the undisturbed soil have shown that dioxins were tainting the environment well before the mass production of PVC, bleaches and other chlorine-containing chemicals began.

A Chemical Conundrum: How Dangerous Is Dioxin?

In December of 1982, the people of Times Beach, Mo., were forced to abandon their town forever because the Environmental Protection Agency found high levels of a chemical called dioxin. At the time, dioxin was considered one of the world's most dangerous chemicals. But nearly 30 years later, the EPA still can't seem to decide just how dangerous it really is.

An Overview of the Effects of Dioxins and Dioxin-like Compounds on Vertebrates, as Documented in Human and Ecological Epidemiology

Dioxins and dioxin-like compounds are primary examples of persistent organic pollutants that induce toxicity in both wildlife and humans. Over the past 200 years these compounds have been almost exclusively generated by human activity and have left a string of disasters in the wake of their accidental release.

Are toxic Dioxin levels lurking in our weed killers?

To start with, dioxin is not one thing; it is a mixture of very similar chemical entities of different toxicity and potential harm. The most toxic is 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorobenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), but any given preparation of herbicide will have varying levels of different dioxins depending on the manufacturing process.

Dioxins & Furans: The Most Toxic Chemicals Known to Science

Dioxin is a general term that describes a group of hundreds of chemicals that are highly persistent in the environment. The most toxic compound is 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin or TCDD. The toxicity of other dioxins and chemicals like PCBs that act like dioxin are measured in relation to TCDD.

Love Canal and the Poisoning of America

The article that follows documents the miseries and losses induced by only one such man-made horror, the infamous Love Canal dump in Niagara Falls, New York.

Saddled With Legacy of Dioxin, Town Considers an Odd Ally: The Mushroom

— On a warm April evening, 90 people crowded into the cafeteria of Redwood Elementary School here to meet with representatives of the State Department of Toxic Substances Control. The substance at issue was dioxin, a pollutant that infests the site of a former lumber mill in this town 130 miles north of San Francisco. And the method of cleanup being proposed was a novel one: mushrooms. Mushrooms have been used in the cleaning up of oil spills, a process called bioremediation, but they have not been used to treat dioxin.

The EPA's Weak Stance on Nasty, Immune System-Wrecking Dioxins

It's difficult to see how anyone can consider issues surrounding potentially fatal poisons as irrelevant to human health. The European Union and World Health Organization have already established safe limits for dioxins in food.

The Secret to Degrading PCBs and Dioxins Is in How Bacteria Breathe

Researchers uncover a previously unknown process used to break up harmful environmental toxins.

What Is Dioxin, Anyway?

Where does it come from? And are its effects reversible?

Resources

Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry

This fact sheet answers the most frequently asked health questions about CDDs. This fact sheet is one in a series of summaries about hazardous substances and their health effects.

EPA

Almost every living creature has been exposed to dioxins. Studies have shown that exposure to dioxins at high enough levels may cause a number of adverse health effects, including cancer. The health effects associated with dioxins depend on a variety of factors including: the level of exposure, when someone was exposed, and for how long and how often someone is exposed.

GreenFacts

Dioxins are mainly released by human activities such as incineration and fuel combustion. Some dioxins and some "dioxin-like" PCBs are known to be harmful. Though in general dioxin levels have been dropping in industrialized countries.

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Humans are primarily exposed to dioxins by eating food contaminated by these chemicals. Dioxin accumulates in the fatty tissues, where they may persist for months or years. People who have been exposed to high levels of dioxin have developed chloracne, a skin disease marked by severe acne-like pimples.

How Stuff Works

The toxicity of dioxin is something that the scientific community does not seem to agree upon. Dioxin became notorious in the 1980s because of Agent Orange and several dioxin dumps (like Love Canal) discovered in the United States.

WHO

Dioxins are environmental pollutants. They have the dubious distinction of belonging to the ''dirty dozen'' - a group of dangerous chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants. Dioxins are of concern because of their highly toxic potential.