National Toxicology Program Lists Dioxin As a Known Human Carcinogen

This past January, the National Toxicology Program announced an addendum to
the Ninth Report on Carcinogens adding dioxin to the list of substances it
considers "known to be human carcinogens." The NTP had planned to reclassify
dioxin as a known human carcinogen when the original report was released in
May 2000 but was prevented from doing so by a lawsuit filed by Jim Tozzi,
former OMB staffer and frequent industry consultant. The lawsuit was
dismissed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The NTP
is the second major international scientific body, following the World
Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), to
declare that dioxin is a human carcinogen. The U.S. EPA has come to the same
conclusion in its draft reassessment report on dioxin.