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The Alliance For A Clean Environment
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Dioxin


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"An Unprecedented Threat"


What is Dioxin?


The name of a group of persistent very toxic chemicals
Dioxin is the nastiest, most toxic man-made organic chemical;
(dioxin's toxicity is second only to radioactive waste)


Dioxin Health Effects



1. Dioxin is a powerful hormone-disrupting chemical. It exhibits serious health effects when it reaches as little as a few parts per trillion in your body fat.

2. There is NO "threshold" dose - the tiniest amount can cause damage, and our bodies have no defense against it.

3. Dioxin modifies the functioning and genetic mechanism of the cell by "attaching" to a protein in the cell, much like a key fitting into a lock.

4. Dioxin accumulates in the fat cells. It is not metabolized by humans.

5. Dioxin causes a wide range of effects:
    a. Potent cancer causing agent
    b. Damages the immune system, leading to increased susceptibility to infectious disease
    c. Reproductive and developmental effects
    d. Miscarriages and birth deformity
    e. Nervous System Disorders


Dioxin Exposure - Pottstown
  • When chemicals and plastics are manufactured or burned, dioxin is produced as an unwanted (but INEVITABLE) by-product.
  • Thousands of tons of chemicals and plastic wastes are breaking down in the Pottstown Landfill. Landfill gas will contain dioxin from incinerator ash used as daily cover for over 6 years, and dioxin producing chemicals will be in the gas burned at Occidental.
  • According to EPA, much of the population of the U.S. is at the dose of dioxin at which there can be serious health effects.
  • Is there any doubt that our community is at the overdose level of dioxin considering our many sources of exposures?
  • Occidental Chemical Company wants to burn over 5 billion cubic feet PER YEAR of landfill gas. How much more dangerous dioxin will be produced by this process? No one can guarantee us that this added dioxin exposure will not have more devastating health impacts to the people in our community.
  • The Greater Pottstown Area already has doubled leukemia compared to the state, and significantly elevated lung and cervical cancers, plus elevated infant mortality.
  • Polyvinyl Chloride, from production to disposal in incinerators, has been identified by Greenpeace as the largest single source of dioxin entering the environment. How can we tolerate ANY additional toxic exposures in Pottstown, especially dioxin?


Our government agency, DEP, must NOT permit MORE DIOXIN EXPOSURE in an already overexposed, very sick community.









ACE
P.O. Box 3063
Stowe, PA 19464
ace@acereport.org





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