Lone
Tree Council and TRW
Dioxin
Update
April
29th 2006 #66
www.trwnews.net
JUST DO IT
Not bad for a day's work on beautiful
Saturday afternoon. About one hundred signatures were obtained today in
opposition to legislation to lower our dioxin cleanup standard from 90 ppt
to 1,000 ppt as proposed by Representative John Moolenaar of Midland and
Senator Mike Goschka and Tony Stamas. Citizens collected signatures at the
home of Kathy and Gary Henry on Midland Rd, some even came from Midland just
to sign the petition. Most people were very receptive according Kathy Henry.
TRW, and Lone Tree Council will continue to collect signatures around the
state in opposition to this destructive, anti- Great Lakes and anti -public
health piece of legislation.
Visit the Tittabawassee River Watch and click
on current news to find out more about this designer legislation for Dow
Chemical and the City of Midland. In the coming election season please ask
candidates who want your vote where they stand on this legislation. Hold
them accountable!
What can you do?
Please oppose this legislation by sending an
e-mail with your name and city of residence to
info@trwnews.net and simply
state in your e-mail that you oppose 1,000ppt. We'll add your name to the
petition OR you can write to
info@trwnews.net and ask for a
copy of the petition which you can have your friends and family
sign. Remember, it doesn't matter where you live in Michigan because these
natural resources belong to all of us. Please act today and send off that
e-mail.
Below is information on the use of the 90 vs
1,000 ppt. To date there are no know residential soil concentrations in the
City of Midland greater than 1,000 ppt. This legislation is an attempt to
detoxify an entire community with the stroke of a pen and it doesn't matter
that the very community, which cannot say dioxin with invoking the "sound
science" incantation, is relying on outdated science to rescue their city
from dioxin. Apparently sound science only applies when it's convenient and
doesn't get in the way of the facts.
- Michigan’s 90 ppt
RDCC
soil criterion for dioxin is a level that is meant to be protective of
public health in properties for unrestricted residential use.
- The ATSDR 1,000 ppt was based on the
detection limits of science available over 20 years ago in the 1980's.
Today, scientific instrumentation is much more sensitive and can measure 10
ppt or less.
The Michigan RDCC of 90 ppt was derived using
current technology.
- The ATSDR 1,000 ppt was calculated based
on a 1984 assessment by the Centers for Disease Control that is NOT
consistent with the current assessment of dioxin’s cancer hazard.
- The 1,000 ppt level was NOT derived as a
"safe" level. It was thought to be a level that could be associated with
health effects. Cleanup levels are traditionally set at levels BELOW those
thought to cause health effects. Therefore, it is not accurate to suggest
that levels below 1,000 ppt pose no risk.
- Referring to the ATSDR 1,000 ppt level as
a cleanup level is not accurate. The 1,000 ppt level is NOT used by ATSDR
for that purpose.
- The 1,000 ppt level was NOT developed to
serve as a standard for cleanup for residential areas
- The 1,000 ppt level does NOT represent a
line between safe and unsafe conditions, although it has been used in that
way
- The EPA has been reviewing dioxin’s
toxicity for more than 10 years. Their review has been repeatedly
peer-reviewed, but political wrangling and the power of the chemical
industry have prevented its release. The draft document concludes that
dioxin is more toxic than previously thought
- If the EPA reassessment were
released, the state’s cleanup standard would be more stringent, not weaker,
based on a new interpretation of studies on dioxin’s toxicity. The state
standard would be between 12 and 53 ppt.
- The 1,000 ppt level does NOT consider
non-cancer health effects that may occur when people are exposed to dioxin
at even lower levels than those associated with cancer. The most sensitive
endpoint for dioxin’s toxicity is thought to be neurobehavioral impacts.
- If the state were to use the 1,000 ppt
standard, the issue of dioxin’s toxicity will continue to plague the state.
When the Dioxin Reassessment is finalized, the EPA will again look at sites
and reassess previous actions to determine if they are protective. So a
cleanup to 1,000 ppt today will not guarantee that the issue will go away.
It could just keep coming up unless contamination is cleaned up to a
reasonable and legitimate standard.
Please pass this e-mail along and visit the
web site. To those of you (without any solicitation) who joined Lone Tree
Council we thank you ever so much for your support. For those of you who
asked to be added to this Dioxin Update list, we thank you too!
Best Regards,
Michelle Hurd Riddick
Lone Tree Council
For additional articles like this one, go to the Tittabawassee River Watch web site www.trwnews.net. for complete coverage of the Tittabawassee River Dow Chemical dioxin contamination saga.. The source organization's web site link is listed above. The Newspaper / Media page of our site contains an extensive archive of media articles dating back to January 2002. The Newspaper / Media page may be accessed by scrolling down to the bottom of the CONTENTS section and clicking on the Newspaper/Media link.