EPA: dioxins are more than carcinogens.

Dioxins are ubiquitous in the industrial world. Yet compared to other pollutants generated by human activities, dioxins appear to be released in trivial amounts. Perhaps only 30 pounds of these chemicals enter the U.S. environment annually, according to a new Environmental Protection Agency report.

In terms of the health hazards they may pose, however, even such trace releases of dioxins "are unacceptable" argues Lynn Goldman, head of EPA's toxic substances program. A pediatrician, she bases her conclusion on a second new report, this one assessing dioxins' risks to human health.

Goldman unveiled both EPA documents (each roughly 1,000 pages long) at a press briefing held this week in Washington, D.C. Over the next 4 months -- and before her agency alters its policies for regulating dioxins -- each report will be open to public comment and subjected to stiff peer review, she said.

Like the risk analysis of dioxins completed in 1985, EPA's new health assessment concludes that dioxins cause cancer in animals and probably in people as well. However, Goldman notes, sufficient data do not yet exist to estimate how many human cancers might trace to dioxins.

This new report also directs considerably more attention to potential noncancer effects of dioxins and related chemicals. For instance, it cites studies indicating that they may foster immune. system abnormalities (SN: 1/1 1/92, p.24), hormone-related disease (SN: 11/27/93, p.356), and even diabetes. And through their hormonelike action, EPA says, these compounds may even adversely affect male reproduction and fetal development (SN: 1/8/94, p.24).

EPA's report "points out that dioxins emissions have been heading in the right direction -- down -- for many years," notes Brad Lienhart, managing director of the Chlorine Chemistry Council in Washington, D.C. In fact, this "demonstrates that the regulatory system already is working well to protect the public and environment," he argues.

But Julia Moore, executive director of the Washington D.C.-based Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) disagrees. "We don't think our patchwork of regulations adequately deals with [dioxins]," she says.

A recent report by PSR and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), another D.C.-based group, notes that pulp and paper mills must limit dioxin releases to water, yet their emissions "to air and sludge remain uncontrolled."

Moreover, the PSR-EDF report observes, "A pulp mill in North Carolina must meet water standards that are 100 times more protective...than does a similar mill across the border in South Carolina." And though dioxin contamination pervades produce, meat, and milk, government limits pertain only to fish. Even here, the joint analysis notes, "there are no federal standards," just state and federal guidelines.