A new report on dioxin (TCDD) from the US Environmental Protection Agency
recommends increasing the risk factor from 10 to 100 fold for cancer. The
draft has yet to be approved by EPA's Science Advisory Board. Despite the
fact that both IARC and US EPA recently elevated dioxin's status to the
"known human carcinogen" category, not all scientists agree that dioxin is
such a dangerous compound. For a more detailed discussion see Science 288
(5470):1313a, 2000.
In other dioxin news, there have been several recent reports on dioxin in
the May 27 issue of the Lancet, including yet another report of increased
sex ratios of female to male births in highly exposed human populations
(355:1838-9). This is a surprising result because similar effects have not
been reported in animal studies. Time and more research are needed to tell
whether the sex ratio observation is a statistical artifact or a real
effect.
--
Charles A. Miller, III, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences
Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine
1430 Tulane Ave.
New Orleans, LA 70112
(504)585-6942 rellim at tulane.edu
Bionet.toxicology news group-- http://www.bio.net/hypermail/toxicol/current
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