HOW TO
ELIMINATE DIOXIN
RACHEL'S
ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH WEEKLY #508
August
22, 1996
Environmental
Research Foundation
P.O.
Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403
Fax (410)
263-8944; Internet: erf@rachel.clark.net
A two-year
study of dioxin in the Great Lakes has concluded that 86% of dioxin sources
could be eliminated without economic sacrifice, and possibly with economic
gains.[1,2] The study was conducted by a team of researchers at Queens
College in New York,led
by Dr. Barry Commoner. Dioxin
has emerged in the past 15 years as one of the two or three most dangerous
chemicals ever tested. Intensive study of dioxin has confirmed that dioxin
acts as a powerful "growth dysregulator," an "environmental hormone" that
interferes withnormal
growth and development in fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals,
including humans. (See REHW #279, #414.) Dioxin disrupts the central nervous
system, the immune system, the hormone (endocrine) system, and the reproductive
system,preventing
normal growth and development of the young and causing a variety of cancers.
Furthermore, this intensive study revealed that Americans now carry enough
dioxin in their bodies to create a cancer hazard hundreds of times as large
as the "acceptable" cancer hazard defined by EPA [U.S. Environmental ProtectionAgency].
Furthermore, existing "body burdens" of dioxin in Americans could be expected
to cause other health effects in sensitive members of the population, such
as immune system damage. Dioxin is thus a serious public health problem.
(SeeREHW
#390, #391.) Dioxin
is never intentionally manufactured (except for laboratory purposes), but
it occurs as an unwanted byproduct of many industrial processes. A recent
estimate of annual world-wide dioxin production (which amounts to 3000
kilograms [kg], or 6614pounds
[lb] per year) indicates that major sources of dioxin include:[3] **
municipal solid waste incinerators (1130 kg [2491 pounds], or 37.6% of
world total); **
cement kilns burning hazardous waste (680 kg [1499 lb], or 23%). Only cement
kilns in the U.S. burn hazardous waste, and these incinerators produce
13 times as much dioxin, per pound of cement manufactured, compared to
cement kilns that do not burnhazardous
waste.
**
steel smelters (350 kg [772 lb], or 12% of total); **
cement kilns not burning hazardous waste (320 kg (706 lb), or 11%); **
biomass combustion (350 kg [772 lb], or 12%). This is from forest fires
and from commercial and residential wood burning. Trees do not naturally
produce dioxin. But forests may be treated with chlorinated pesticides,
such as Silvex, which thenproduce
dioxins when burned. Alternatively, airborne dioxins may settle onto trees
and be absorbed into the leaves and wood; when these later burn, the dioxin
may be released into the atmosphere again. The researchers who developed
these global estimates don't know which explanation is correct.
-
medical waste
incinerators (84 kg [185 lb], or 2.8%);
-
secondary copper
smelting (78 kg (172 lb), or 2.6%);
-
automobiles burning
leaded gasoline (11 kg [24 lb], or 0.4%); cars burning leaded gasoline
emit 9 times as much dioxin per gallon of fuel, compared to burning unleaded
gasoline.
-
automobiles burning
unleaded gasoline (1 kg [2.2 lb], or 0.03%).
These estimates
are subject to large uncertainties because almost nothing is known about
dioxin sources in the former Soviet Union, China, and India, which together
hold about 43% of world population. Furthermore, estimates of total dioxin
falling ontothe
Earth's surface worldwide (13,100 kg, or 28,880 lb) are about 4 times as
large as total estimated worldwide emissions (3000 kg, or 6614 lb). Thus
no one is quite sure where all the world's dioxin is coming from. One thing
IS certain: dioxin is not coming from natural sources. Study of the sediments
of lakes has shown that there was very little dioxin in the environment
prior to 1940.[4] Despite
these major uncertainties, dioxin emissions into the Great Lakes have been
studied carefully by Commoner and associates, who identified 1329 individual
sources of dioxin. Of these 1329 sources, 106 account for 86% of the dioxin
entering the Lakes:
-
48% of the dioxin
entering the Great Lakes originates in 609 hospital waste incinerators
and 14 commercial medical waste incinerators.
-
22% of Great lakes
dioxin originates in 52 municipal solid waste incinerators burning 11.7
million tons of trash per year.
-
8% originates in
iron ore sintering plants. (To sinter means to form into a solid mass using
heat but without melting.)
-
8% from cement kilns
burning hazardous wastes.
-
4% from secondary
copper smelting.
-
3% from combustion
of coal.
-
2% from cement kilns
not burning hazardous wastes.
-
1% from heavy duty
diesel vehicles.
-
0.8% from hazardous
waste incinerators.
-
0.7% from sewage
sludge incineration.
-
2.2% from other
sources (secondary copper refining; hexachlorobenzene waste incineration;
combustion of leaded and unleaded gasoline).
The bulk of Commoner's
report is an economic analysis of the feasibility of eliminating the sources
of dioxin from medical waste incinerators, municipal solid waste incinerators,
iron ore sintering plants, paper mills, and cement kilns burning hazardouswastes. Commoner
takes a modern "pollution prevention" approach to dioxin: he looks for
ways to change production processes to avoid the creation of dioxin. Throughout
the study, Commoner discusses the alternative approach --pollution control
--and shows that itcannot
reduce dioxin emissions to zero. Only pollution prevention --eliminating
the creation of dioxin by changing production technologies --can achieve
zero discharge of dioxins. Interestingly,
despite prominent use of the term "pollution prevention" inside EPA (where
they've even turned it into the catchy buzzword, "P2"), Commoner shows
time after time that EPA and certain of the "big 10" environmental groups
who are talking about reducing dioxin emissions under the Clean Air Act
of 1990 are all stuck in old-style "pollution control" debates. Sierra
Club, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and EPA are spending their
scarce resources jousting in court over the meaning of "maximum available
CONTROL technology" --not even discussing real pollution prevention, which
requires NOT MAKING POLLUTION TO BEGIN WITH. (The Clinton Administration
and some of its acolytes in the Washington environmental community revealed
their contempt for real pollution prevention last month when they helped
Congress repeal the Delaney clause. Since 1958, the Delaney clause had
prohibited the addition of known carcinogens to processed foods--the only
U.S. environmental law truly based on PREVENTION. Now the Delaney prohibition
has been repealed, replaced by a risk assessment process which allows "safe"
amounts of cancer-causing chemicals to be added to our food. In the unprincipled
world of D.C. environmental politics-and-money, this is being touted as
progress. The catch is, no one promoting thenew
"risk assessment" approach actually believes that "safe" amounts of carcinogens
can be established, certainly not when several carcinogens and other poisons
are added simultaneously to the food of tens of millions of people. So
EPA and other cynicalWashington
operatives are promoting public health policies founded on risk assessments
which have no basis in science, which are not in any sense prevention based,
and which certainly cannot "guarantee protection for children," as one
environmental group announced they would.[5] Presumably, such cynical posturing
isthe
price one pays to remain an "inside player"--a sad display of political
opportunism and ethical collapse by our friends.) At present, in Washington,
P2 is just so much eye wash. Commoner
on the other hand applies the principle of pollution prevention aggressively,
and in novel ways:
-
Medical wastes are
incinerated, basically, to kill germs and reduce volume. Commoner shows
that medical waste incinerators around the Great Lakes could all be shut
down affordably and replaced by autoclaving (essentially a large pressure
cooker that sterilizes) followed by landfilling. Autoclaving and landfilling
re an affordable, dioxin-free alternative to medical waste incinerators.
-
Commoner shows that
all municipal solid waste incinerators could be closed and retired (their
outstanding bonded debt paid off by public funds) and replaced by dioxin-free
intensive recycling programs --all at a net SAVING of $536 million each
year for Great Lakes communities. ** Commoner shows that --despite anti-P2
regulations imposed by EPA --pulp and paper mills could readily shift to
totally-chlorine-free technologies, thus COMPLETELY ELIMINATING THE
SOURCES OF DIOXIN IN PAPER MILLS. Real pollution PREVENTION
is affordable.
-
Commoner shows that
chlorinated solvents and oils could be eliminated from iron sintering plants,
thus ELIMINATING the sources of dioxin from these facilities.
-
Commoner shows that
75% of all cement is manufactured without using hazardous waste as a fuel,
and that therefore it would be relatively easy for government to outlaw
use of hazardous waste as a fuel in cement kilns, to protect public health
and safety.
Commoner's
clear, quantitative analysis and low-key advocacy offer real hope that
dioxin could be brought under control nation-wide. Unfortunately, Commoner
starts his thinking from a place quite different from the place where EPA
and the big environmental lobbying groups start their thinking. Commoner
boldly examines the production processes that are creating dioxin --production
processes that are traditionally considered the exclusive domain of the
so-called "private sector" --and suggests how they could be modified to
prevent pollution. (It seems odd that this sector retains the label "private"
even though its decisions have polluted every square foot of the planet
with powerful poisons.) Until the environmental community adopts anapproach
as bold as Commoner's, trendy talk of P2 will remain nothing more than
a cynical cover for business as usual. --Peter Montague (National Writers
Union, UAW Local 1981/AFL-CIO)
[1]
Barry Commoner and others, DIOXIN FALLOUT IN THE GREAT LAKES. WHERE IT
COMES FROM; HOW TO PREVENT IT; AT WHAT COST. (Flushing, N.Y.: Queens College,
Center for the Biology of Natural Systems, June, 1996). Telephone (718)
670-4182. [2]
Barry Commoner and others, ZEROING OUT DIOXIN IN THE GREAT LAKES: WITHIN
OUR REACH (Flushing, N.Y.: Queens College, Center for the Biology of Natural
Systems, June, 1996). Telephone (718) 670-4182. [3]
Louis B. Brzuzy and Ronald A. Hites, "Global Mass Balance for Polychlorinated
Dibenzo-P-dioxins and Dibenzofurans," ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Vol. 30, No. 6 (1996), pgs. 1797-1804. A recent "mass balance" study of
U.S. (not global) dioxin emissions is Valerie M. Thomas and Thomas G. Spiro,
ANESTIMATION
OF DIOXIN EMISSIONS IN THE UNITED STATES [PU/CEES Report No. 285] (Princeton,
N.J.: Princeton University, Center for Energy and Environmental Studies,
December, 1994). [4]
Jean M. Czuczwa and others, "Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans
in sediments from Siskiwit Lake, Isle Royale," SCIENCE Vol. 226 (1984),
pgs. 568-569. And see Jean M. Czuczwa, and Ron A. Hites. "Airborne Dioxins
andDibenzofurans:
Sources and Fates." ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Vol. 20 (1986),
pg. 195 and following pages. [5]
Richard Wiles and Mark B. Childress, "Pesticide Bill Guarantees Protection
for Children and a Citizen's Right to Know," press release dated July 17,
1996 from Environmental Working Group, 1718 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite
600, Washington, DC 20009; telephone: (202) 667-6982. The Environmental
Working Group (EWG) knows as well as we do that risk assessments cannot
"guarantee protection for children." President Clinton evidently
liked EWG's disinformation so well that he later repeated it himself; see
Associated Press, "Clinton Praises Bill Regulating Pesticides," NEW YORK
TIMES, August 4 1996, p. 17. And see John H. Cushman, Jr., "Pesticide Measure
Advances In House, Without Rancor," NEW YORK TIMES, July 18, 1996, pg.
20.
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