EPA Plans To Release New Dioxin Tracking Data

Date: May 9, 2002

Source: News Room

The US Environmental Protection Agency will soon release new pollution data that for the first time tracks emissions of the cancer-causing chemical dioxin. The dioxin data will be included in the agency's toxic release inventory, released annually in the spring. The inventory tracks emissions of more than 600 toxic compounds by U.S. industrial facilities into the air, water and land. Since 1995, the EPA has imposed regulations on major dioxin emitters, including municipal-waste incinerators, cement kilns and pulp and paper mills. Dioxin has been fingered as the toxic component in Agent Orange, and dioxin pollution caused the 1983 evacuation of the town of Times Beach, Missouri, and the 1978 evacuation of the Love Canal site in Niagara Falls, New York. Dioxin builds up in living tissue over time, so even small exposures can accumulate to dangerous levels.

Sign up to receive our free Weekly News Bulletin