Did you know?
Dow is responsible for the birth of the modern environmental movement. In 1969, Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring about the side-effects of a Dow product, DDT, on North American bird populations. Her work created a groundswell of concern, sparking the birth of many of today's environmental action groups. Another example of Dow's commitment to Living. Improved daily.

and they celebrated Rachaels book with Agent Oranges Sales Screaming through the New Zealand roof!

fuck dow

Dow aint that dumb, or humorous :)

http://www.dow.com/environment/debate.html
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Frequently Asked Questions
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Our Commitment
What are Dioxins?
Frequently Asked Questions
2000 TRI Dioxin Reporting (U.S.)
2000 NPRI Dioxin Reporting (Canada)



What is dioxin?
Where does dioxin come from?
How much dioxin am I exposed to?
What are the possible health effects of exposure to dioxin?
What are companies and the government doing about dioxin?
Is dioxin from local companies creating a risk to my health?
Is there anything I can do to reduce my exposure to dioxin?
Why am I hearing about dioxins now?
Why did Dow set a dioxin reduction goal?
Why was 1995 chosen as the baseline?
How did Dow determine its 1995 dioxin emissions baseline and how much dioxin was Dow emitting to the environment in 1995?
How did Dow achieve its current 60 percent reductions from the 1995 dioxin emissions baseline?
Once the 90 percent dioxin reduction goal is reached, how much dioxin will Dow be emitting to the environment?
How do Dow's dioxin emissions compare to the rest of the chemical industry?
What is the Toxics Reduction Inventory (TRI) and when was dioxin added to the TRI?
Dow says it has reduced dioxin emissions by approximately 60 percent since 1995. Why, then, are your TRI dioxin numbers higher than those you have shown as part of your 2005 90 percent reduction goal?
How long has Dow known about its TRI dioxin numbers and why hasn't the company made them public before?
How will dioxin affect me if I live near a Dow manufacturing site?
Have any Dow employees been exposed to dioxin and what is the status of their health?

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1. What is dioxin?
Dioxin is the name of a family of chemical compounds that are unintentional byproducts of certain industrial, non-industrial and natural processes, usually involving combustion.

Different dioxin compounds have different toxicities. Sometimes the term dioxin is also used to refer to TCDD, the most well studied and most toxic form of dioxin. The many different types of dioxin actually vary greatly in toxicity -- some of them 10,000 times less toxic than TCDD.

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2. Where does dioxin come from?
No one makes dioxin on purpose. Historically, incinerators, the manufacture of certain herbicides, and pulp and paper bleaching were among the largest industrial sources of dioxin. However, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), regulations and voluntary changes by industry have dramatically reduced dioxin releases from these industrial sources by 80% between 1987 and 1995, with releases expected to drop by more than 90% within the next few years as new regulations are fully implemented. Today, EPA considers "uncontrolled combustion," including open burning of household trash, agricultural burning and landfill fires, to be the largest unaddressed sources of dioxin in the environment, [1] accounting for an estimated 57% of total releases. [2] Increasingly, natural sources, such as forest fires and composting, are also being recognized as contributors of dioxin to the environment. Because dioxin occurs naturally in the environment, it can never be totally eliminated.

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3. How much dioxin am I exposed to?
Levels of dioxin in food -- which account for 95 percent of our exposure to dioxin -- have been cut in half over the past seven years. [3] EPA has clearly emphasized that the U.S. food supply is among the safest and most nutritious in the world. [4] The World Health Organization sets its Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) at a range of 1 to 4 pg/kg/bw/day (picograms per kilogram of body weight per day) for adults. A picogram is one-trillionth of a gram. EPA estimates that the average U.S. adult intake is 0.5 to 1 pg/kg/bw/day, clearly within, or below, that range.

People today are exposed to less dioxin than at any time in the recent past. According to EPA, the amount of dioxin in the average person's body has declined by more than 50% since the late 1980s. [5] Studies of levels of dioxin in human breast milk, blood and fat tissue all show significant declines -- with decreases ranging from 50 to 70 percent between 1980 and 1996. [6]

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4. What are the possible health effects of exposure to dioxin?
Over the past 30 years, researchers have conducted many studies to investigate the potential for adverse health effects from accumulated levels of dioxin in people's bodies. According to EPA, "currently there is no clear indication of increased disease in the general population attributable to dioxin-like compounds." [8]

Adverse health effects related to dioxin -- such as chloracne, a severe skin condition -- have only been seen in people exposed to extremely large quantities of dioxin. Extensive studies of people exposed to relatively high levels of dioxin through occupational exposures, accidents or military service do not suggest that adverse effects to human health will occur at the low levels in today's environment.

A large historical study of workers showed increased rates of cancer, possibly from dioxin. However, those rates were only seen in workers exposed for many years at amounts 100 to 10,000 times more than the general population. [9] Exposure to other chemicals and cigarette smoking may also have affected the results of the study, published in the May 1999 Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

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5. What are companies and the government doing about dioxin?
Government and industry have worked together to reduce dioxin emissions dramatically since the 1970s. According to EPA, as a result of these efforts, known industrial emissions in the United States will be reduced by more than 90% from 1980 levels within the next few years. [10]

The chlor-alkali industry is not a significant source of dioxin releases to the environment, accounting for less that one percent of overall dioxin emissions.

As part of its commitment to the principles of Responsible Care®, the chlor-alkali industry is committed to working cooperatively with the government to reduce releases and develop new methods of cleaner production while continuing to create the many products that help save lives everyday.

However, because dioxins can come from natural and non-industrial sources such as forest fires and open burning of garbage and landfill fires, we will never be able to eliminate dioxin completely from the environment.

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6. Is dioxin from local companies creating a risk to my health?
Since 95% of human exposure to dioxin is through the diet, exposure levels are generally more a function of what we eat rather than where we live. Our food comes from a wide range of sources throughout the world. Therefore, living near an industrial facility does not necessarily mean that you are exposed to higher levels of dioxin than the overall population.

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7. Is there anything I can do to reduce my exposure to dioxin?
The EPA, FDA and other agencies note that since dioxin accumulates in animal fats, following normal dietary recommendations for a healthy, low-fat diet is the best way to reduce the potential for dioxin exposure.

"The best strategy for lowering the risk of dioxins while maintaining the benefits of a good diet, according to the agencies," is to follow the recommendations in the Dietary Guidelines to choose fish, lean meat, poultry, and low or fat-free (skim) dairy products and to increase consumption of fruits, vegetables and grain products. [12]

Yet while recognizing people's concern over dioxin exposure, the Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Drug Administration, and other federal agencies stress that the U.S. food supply is among the safest and most nutritious in the world. Neither agency recommends avoiding specific foods or taking any special precautions to avoid dioxin exposure.

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8. Why am I hearing about dioxins now?
EPA's Toxics Release Inventory was established in 1986 to track information on 650 chemical substances manufactured, processed or used by U.S. production facilities each year. EPA may add or remove chemicals to the TRI list based on their toxicity. Dioxin was added to the TRI for reporting purposes beginning in the year 2000.

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9. Why did Dow set a dioxin reduction goal?
Dow takes dioxin reduction seriously and we not only believe that dioxin emissions to the environment need to be reduced, we continue to work hard to make that happen.

In 1995, we enhanced our dioxin reduction efforts by committing to reduce our dioxin emissions to the air and water by 90 percent by the year 2005. We are investing $250 million dollars in a wide variety of projects to meet this goal. To date, our efforts have resulted in more than a 60 percent reduction of our dioxin emissions. This is two thirds of the way toward our target.

It is also important to remember that dioxin levels in the environment have declined significantly over the past 30 years, and will continue to decrease as new regulations and voluntary industry initiatives take effect.

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10. Why was 1995 chosen as the baseline?
1995 marked the year that Dow public announced aggressive, voluntary, global EH&S goals for the year 2005. That same year, the U.S. EPA completed its initial baseline inventory for dioxin emissions.

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11. How did Dow determine its 1995 dioxin emissions baseline and how much dioxin was Dow emitting to the environment in 1995?
In 1995, Dow committed to a self-initiated goal to reduce dioxin emissions to air and water globally by 90% by the year 2005. Because of the complexity in analysis and the variation in chemical and physical processes, the exact level of dioxin emissions from our facilities was not known at the time. However, we had some experience achieving reductions with our efforts on combustion abatement and technology in Germany and felt we could apply this knowledge to other facilities.

Using continued monitoring data before completion of dioxin reduction projects for sources allowed Dow three years to fully determine our 1995 air and water emissions baseline. Upon completion, Dow determined its 1995 baseline of dioxin emissions to air and water was at 40 grams (TEQ).

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12. How did Dow achieve its current 60 percent reductions from the 1995 dioxin emissions baseline?
Dow is two-thirds of the way toward our 90% goal of reducing dioxin emissions to air and water – achieving 60% emission reductions after implementing a number of dioxin abatement and technology projects. These projects included new incineration technology and abatement, scrubbers to curtail stack emissions, filters for water emissions and other post treatment and source-reduction technologies such as recycling waste streams for reuse.

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13. Once the 90 percent dioxin reduction goal is reached, how much dioxin will Dow be emitting to the environment?
Once our goal is achieved, Dow's total dioxin emissions to air and water will be approximately four grams (TEQ).

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14. How do Dow's dioxin emissions compare to the rest of the chemical industry?
We do not have comparative data with the rest of the industry. We do know that Dow is unique in terms of our size, in some areas of our chemistry, and our number of combustion units.

However, regardless of where we are in terms of comparative data, our dioxin reduction goal is extremely clear and our commitment is solid. We will continue to work toward the goal we set for ourselves in 1995 – that is, to reduce dioxin emissions to air and water by 90 percent by the year 2005 regardless of what the rest of the chemical industry reports. We have been open with the public about our commitment and we are determined to reach our goals. To date, we are approximately 60 percent of the way there.

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15. What is the Toxics Reduction Inventory (TRI) and when was dioxin added to the TRI?
Each year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires chemical manufacturers and manufacturing facilities in many industries to report emissions to air, water, and land for about 650 chemical substances. The EPA compiles the data in its annual Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). The TRI was created in 1986 as part of the agency's Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act. Environment Canada has a very similar requirement known as the National Pollutants Release Inventory.

Periodically, both Environment Canada and the EPA add chemicals to the reporting list. This year, both EPA and Environment Canada included dioxin in their respective TRI and NPRI reporting for the first time. As a result, companies reported their dioxin releases or emissions under NPRI to Environment Canada on June 1, 2001 and to the U.S. EPA on July 1, 2001.

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16. Dow says it has reduced dioxin emissions by approximately 60 percent since 1995. Why, then, are your TRI dioxin numbers higher than those you have shown as part of your 2005 90 percent reduction goal?
Dow has achieved excellent results – a 60 percent reduction on our commitment to reduce dioxin emissions to air and water.

However, the TRI requires companies to report dioxin releases beyond emissions to air and water. Air and water emissions are extremely important numbers as these emissions have the potential to increase human exposure.

The TRI also require companies to report dioxins that are generated on site and the ways these dioxins are treated, such as being destroyed in highly efficient incinerators or disposed of in regulatory-approved secure landfills or underground caverns. These are dioxins that do not reach the open environment and they do not create the potential for human exposure. These additional numbers do not reflect more dioxins in the environment, just more reporting.

*The U.S. EPA has also required the use of a different measurement standard for TRI than is commonly used for reporting dioxin emissions. See Dow's web section on Toxicity vs. Mass: Two Ways to Measure Dioxins.

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17. How long has Dow known about its TRI dioxin numbers and why hasn't the company made them public before?
Since Dow established its 1995 baseline on dioxin emissions to air and water, we have learned a great deal about how to better detect and reduce our dioxin emissions. The company's focus has been heavily on dioxin emissions where there has been the potential to create public exposure and we didn't have information on some of our internal processes and waste streams.

Dow has been sharing its 1995 dioxin emissions baseline and our progress on dioxin emissions reduction to air and water with our local communities and other interested parties through our public report. Now that we have this additional TRI information on dioxins, we are also sharing it on our web site.

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18. How will dioxin affect me if I live near a Dow manufacturing site?
According to the U.S. EPA, 95 percent of human dioxin exposure is through our diet. Since diet is the primary exposure pathway, exposure levels are generally more a function of what we eat rather than where we live. Our food comes from a wide range of sources throughout the world. Therefore, living near an industrial facility with dioxin emissions does not necessarily mean that you are exposed to higher levels of dioxin than the overall population.

It is also important to know that people's risk from dioxin is declining as environmental levels of dioxin decline. According to the U.S. EPA, dioxin levels in the environment have declined dramatically over the last 30 years. In addition, Dow continues to decrease its own dioxin emissions.

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19. Have any Dow employees been exposed to dioxin and what is the status of their health?
While there have been over 30 years of research and theories about dioxin and health effects, there remains no scientific consensus that dioxin causes health effects in people at today's environmental levels. Dow has routinely monitored the health of our employees, and all results indicate that the extremely low levels dioxin they may have been exposed to have not had any impact on their health.

More specifically, Dow extensively studied a group of 2,187 male employees who were potentially exposed to dioxins during their employment with the company between 1937 and 1982. This study group provides a particularly valuable assessment of potential risks related to dioxins because it is exceptionally large, it has a long follow-up time (averaging 30 years per employee), and it is based on high quality industrial hygiene monitoring data. The study shows that Dow employees who worked in plants where dioxins were potentially present have lower overall mortality rates than the general population.

While there is a lack of scientific consensus on the risk of dioxin to human health, everyone agrees that dioxin emissions to the environment should be reduced.

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[1] Questions and Answers About Dioxins, Interagency Working Group on Dioxin (representatives from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Agriculture, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Commerce, Department of State, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy), July 2000.
[2] Draft Dioxin Reassessment, Part I: Estimating Exposure to Dioxin-Like Compounds, Volume 2: Sources of Dioxin-Like Compounds in the United States , Chapter 1, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, September 2000.
[3] Assessment of the Health Risk of Dioxins: Re-Evaluation of the Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI), Executive Summary, World Health Organization, 1998.
[4] Questions and Answers About Dioxins (see citation #1)
[5] Draft Dioxin Reassessment, Environmental Protection Agency, September 2000.
[6] Päpke, O., "PCDD/PCDF: Human Background Data for Germany, a 10-Year Experience," Environmental Health Perspectives 106: 723-731, 1998. Stanley, J.S., Ayling, R.E., Cramer, P.H., Thornburg, K.R., Remmers, J.C., Breen, J.J., Schwemburger, J., Kang, H.K., and Watanabe, K., "Polychlorinated Dibenzo-p-Dioxin And Dibenzofuran Concentration Levels in Human Adipose Tissue Samples From The Continental United States Collected From 1971 Through 1987," Chemosphere 20: 895-901, 1998.
[7] Pinsky, P. & Lorber, M.N., "A model to evaluate past exposure to 2,3,7,8-TCDD," Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology, 8, (2), 187-206, 1998.
[8] Dioxin: Summary of the Dioxin Reassessment, Information Sheet 1, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, June 12, 2000.
[9] Steenland, K., Piacitelli, L., Deddens, J., Fingerhut, M. and Chang, L.I., "Cancer, Heart Disease and Diabetes in Workers Exposed to 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p- dioxin," Journal of the National Cancer Institute 91:779-86, 1999.
[10] Questions and Answers About Dioxins (see citation #1)
[11] Hagenmeier, H. and Walczok, M., "Time Trends in Levels, Patterns and Profiles for PCDD/PCDF in Sediment Cores of Lake Constance," Organohalogen Compounds 28: 101-104, 1996 (sediment). Ferrario, J., Byrne, C., Dupuy, A.E., Winters, D.L., Lorber, M., and Anderson, S., "Analytical Method and Results from the Analyses of USEPA Historical Food Samples for Dibenzo-p-Dioxins/-Furans/Coplanar PCBs," Organohalogen Compounds 35: 29-32, 1998 [food]. Winters, D.L., Anderson, S., Lorber, M., Ferrario, J., and Byrne, C., "Trends in Dioxin and PCB Concentrations in Meat Samples from Several Decades of the 20th Century," Organohalogen Compounds 38: 75-78, 1998 [food].
[12] Questions and Answers About Dioxins (see citation #1)




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