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MONDAY, APRIL 29, 2002

The Environmental Protection Agency is planning to tie cancer-causing chemicals to the consumption of everyday food products, according to a Congressional report released on Friday.

Against the objections of the food industry and some Republicans, the EPA will conclude that consumers face the most risk from eating beef and dairy products, the General Accounting Office (GAO) reported. Congressional auditors reviewed a draft study which ranked the two types of food, along with freshwater fish and shellfish, as posing the most risk to humans.

"According to EPA officials, the report will conclude that dioxins may adversely affect human health at lower exposure levels than previously thought and that most exposure to dioxins occurs from eating such American dietary staples as meats, fish, and dairy products, which contain minute traces of dioxins," the GAO wrote.

The audit, written at the behest of Sens. Ted Cochran (R-Miss.) and John Breaux (D-La.), doesn't voice an opinion about the science behind the EPA's findings. But the GAO pointed out several limitations, which government officials and researchers acknowledged, of the data used to determine food safety.

Nevertheless, Congressional reviewers said information contained in EPA's October 2001 draft "reflect a significant improvement" on a study released during the Clinton administration. Two scientific peer reviews also found agreement on many key points, the GAO noted.

EPA's controversial report, expected later this year, has been more than a decade in the making. In 1985, the agency first linked dioxins -- which are a broad group of chemicals that collect in the fat of animals and humans -- to cancer.

The finding prompted the first of several "reassessments" in response to complaints by the chemical and food industries, which stand to be affected by the final report when it is released. Despite the protests, the EPA appears to have reaffirmed its earlier warnings.

The EPA also is willing to highlight the dangers of dioxins. Last year's draft, for instance, said the risk of getting cancer was 10 times greater than previously expected.

Other risks include developmental and reproductive problems. A skin condition known as chloracne can also occur.

Dioxins, which are created in a number of situations and are typically the byproduct of products or waste containing chlorine, pose a special problem to indigenous populations. Since the chemicals end up accumulating in the fat of animals, Native people who rely on subsistence hunting, fishing, and farming have been reported to have twice the levels of dioxins than others.

In October 2000, scientists showed that a majority of toxins in the Inuit autonomous Inuit territory of Nunavut, Canada, came from American sources. Another report showed that dioxin concentrations in the milk of Inuit mothers are twice the levels reported in southern Quebec.

President Bush last year signed a global treaty banning or limiting dioxins. Discussions on how the U.S. will adhere are ongoing.

Get the Report:
Environmental Health Risks: Information on EPA's Draft Reassessment of Dioxins. GAO-02-515 (April 26, 2001)

Only on Indianz.Com:
Dioxins are everywhere (10/4)

Relevant Links:
How POPs threaten the Natural Environment and the Future of Indigenous Peoples - http://www.ienearth.org/pops_threat-p1.html
Persistent Organic Pollutants, the United Nations - http://irptc.unep.ch/pops

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