EPA confirms steady decline in dioxin advisories downstream of pulp and paper mills.

EPA confirms steady decline in dioxin advisories downstream of pulp and paper mills. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) National Listing of Fish and Wildlife Consumption Advisories (NLFWCA), Washington, D.C., USA, has found out of 2618 total water body advisories in the United States, 75 are attributed to dioxin, representing less than 3% of the total affected water bodies in the country. Of the dioxin advisories, only 11 are downstream of bleached chemical pulp and paper mills, says the Alliance for Environmental Technology (AET), less than one-half of one percent of the total 2618 water bodies under advisory at the end of 2001.

AET's 2002 report, "Eco-System Recovery: Liftings of Fish Consumption Advisories for Dioxin Downstream of U.S. Pulp and Paper Mills," credits the steady decline in these advisories to the virtual elimination of dioxin discharges due to complete substitution of chlorine dioxide for chlorine gas in the first stage of chemical pulp bleaching--so called elemental chlorine-free (ECF). The report, based on data from individual state environmental and health authorities and NLFWCA, shows that since 1990, states have lifted a total of 24 fish consumption advisories for dioxin downstream of bleached pulp and paper mills. This represents an almost 70% decline in the total number of these advisories in place at the end of 1990.