Word: dioxins
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...research suggests that men exposed to substances such as lead, alcohol and some anticancer medications, as well as nuclear radiation and dioxin-containing herbicides, could be conceiving children with serious physical and mental abnormalities. Although the reports do not prove that such damage is occurring, the increasing number of studies reflects a concern about the issue that some experts feel is long overdue. Says Dr. Ellen Silbergeld, a toxicologist at the University of Maryland: "There has been a sense ((among scientists studying birth defects)) that reproduction is something that women do, and that men don't contribute very much. That...
Vietnam veterans have long contended that the herbicide Agent Orange, which contains dioxin, has contributed to birth defects in their children, although scientists have not been able to confirm the link. Still, a patchwork of reports continues to suggest at least a minor effect. The most recent study, published last month in the American Journal of Public Health, found that the children of men who served in Vietnam were 1.7 times as likely as the babies of other veterans to suffer from major malformations, such as clubfoot or serious heart problems...
...current issue of Microwave News, Slesin has printed what may be his greatest scoop: the key paragraph of a two-year Environmental Protection Agency study recommending that so-called extremely low-frequency fields be classified as "probable human carcinogens" alongside such notorious chemical toxins as PCBs, formaldehyde and dioxin. The recommendation, which could have set off a costly chain of regulatory actions, was deleted from the final draft after review by the White House Office of Policy Development. "The EPA thing is a stunner," says Paul Brodeur, a writer for the New Yorker. "It's a clear case of suppression...
Agent Orange was widely used in Vietnam to strip the thick jungle canopy that helped conceal enemy forces; only later did scientists become aware of the potentially dangerous long-term effects of dioxin, which has produced cancers in animals. The defoliant has been suspect ever since unknown numbers of Vietnam veterans developed various cancers or fathered seriously handicapped children. Based on the inability to prove a conclusive link between those ailments and Agent Orange, the Reagan and Bush administrations refused to compensate veterans for all but a few of these health problems. But critics charge that no clear connections have...
Instead of killing the project outright, the White House panel accepted a proposal by Houk to take blood tests of 646 Vietnam veterans, selected on the basis of their probable exposure, to see if they had elevated blood levels of dioxin. The tests showed that none had abnormal blood levels -- not surprising, given that the exposure would have taken place 20 years earlier and that none of those tested had handled Agent Orange directly...