Your editorial of Sept. 17th entitled "Our View:
EPA should finish its work" suggests that because the agency's dioxin reassessment is not yet completed, dioxin toxicity remains open to serious scientific debate. This is simply not true.
EPA has extensive scientific knowledge on the toxicity of dioxin. Thousands of peer-reviewed scientific studies have been published. No matter how you look at dioxin, one fact remains indisputable: dioxin is a highly toxic compound. In fact, EPA's reassessment of the most recent science indicated that dioxin is a more potent toxic chemical than previously believed. A recent University of Michigan study funded by Dow Chemical revealed that people consuming fish from the Tittabawassee River, Saginaw River and Saginaw Bay have higher than average levels of dioxin in their blood. Any increase in the
dioxin levels of fish consumers is a health concern.
http://www.ourmidland.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18946502&BRD=2289&PAG=461&dept_id=472539&rfi=6