worst chemical body burden: dioxin
Dioxin’s got game. He’s been using the same cheesy pick up line since the ‘70’s. He debuted his deadly shtick as Agent Orange in Vietnam then made a splash at Love Canal! Dioxin sneaks up on you and then makes his move just as you turn away from your drink. He’s the seemingly normal guy at the bar, but beware, this gigolo is full of byproducts of the industrial process that will stay with you long after you have been exposed to them. That’s right, Dioxin is a legacy chemical. He travels through the food chain entering the air through the burning of waste or disposal of PVC (vinyl) plastics. He seeps into the animal food supply. Then we unwitting humans get a taste of it in our dairy and meat. The saddest part about Dioxin is that once you’ve been exposed, your experience with Dioxin stays with you for a very long time. No visit to a doctor is going to fix that. With his incredible staying power, you may be at risk for carcinogenic, reproductive, developmental, immunological, and endocrine side effects.
- Dioxin is a prolific bad actor — every American knows dioxin from his frequent casting in fatty foods, and as a result almost all Americans have measurable levels of this chemical in their bodies. Babies are exposed to dioxin in the womb, and infants are exposed to dioxin in breast milk.
- Dioxin has been identified as a human carcinogen by the EPA, but he has been known to cause a wide range of non-cancer health effects including reproductive, developmental, immunological, and endocrine disruption in both animals and humans.
- Producers around the world are beginning to have second thoughts about casting Dioxin, and he has been targeted for global phase out by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, an international treaty signed by 170 nations around the world. In California, San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley have all passed resolutions to enact public health policies on dioxin.
Actor: Alejandro Sandoval. Photo by: Francisco Cortinas, Patricia Mateos Ballestero
Learn more at the Center for Health, Environment and Justice.
