Dow study: No ill effects

 Tuesday, August 02, 2005 JEREMIAH STETTLER THE SAGINAW NEWS

Dow Chemical Co. has published a study showing that employees with enormous concentrations of dioxin in their blood -- some with levels thousands of times higher than normal -- have suffered no abnormal health problems.

Dow scientists say the results confirm their belief that residents along the dioxin-tainted Tittabawassee River face no imminent health threat because of soil contamination.

The chemical giant's conclusions were printed in the Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology on July 13.

State and federal health officials, however, say they doubt the validity of the results.

"There are countless studies showing that dioxin has negative health effects at even lower levels," said Robert McCann, spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Quality. "It is a jump (for Dow) to make some of those conclusions."

Linda S. Birnbaum, a renowned dioxin expert and director of the Experimental Toxicology Division for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, also is skeptical of the company's findings.

Dow scientists stand behind their work. They say an analysis of 52 highly exposed employees shows no increased occurrence of cancer, diabetes or other dioxin-related ailments.

They say the only adverse health effect was chloracne, a sometimes severe skin condition that disfigured Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko late last year.

"With the exception of chloracne, these workers have not experienced health problems as a result of their exposure," said Michael L. Carson, medical director for Dow's Midland facility.

Dow's analysis centered on employees who worked in the company's chlorophenol plant sometime between 1937 and 1980, when production could have exposed them to dioxin.

Scientists selected 98 employees -- 62 with known exposure and 36 without -- to participate in blood testing and a health evaluation.

The study found dioxin concentrations as high as 17,847 parts per trillion in exposed workers. Normal levels are between 6 and 36 parts per trillion, depending on age.

Scientists reported nothing out of the ordinary in health profiles for those workers. They found fewer cases of brain and liver cancer, more cases of prostate and stomach cancer and no correlation between any of them and dioxin.

Birnbaum believes the study is flawed. She said the company misclassified some workers, potentially putting employees with high dioxin levels in its control group.

Her concern lies with tradesmen -- mechanics, plumbers and pipefitters -- who worked periodically in the chlorophenol plant. Those employees could have elevated dioxin levels, but are in the control group as an unexposed population.

"(Dow's) exposure results are very important," she said. "But they need to reanalyze their health outcomes."

Dow scientists say tradesmen indeed are a difficult group to classify. They plan to address that topic in later studies. But even if those people were among the control group, they say, it would not undermine their results.

James J. Collins, a Dow epidemiologist, said tradesmen would represent just a fraction of the company's internal control group of 10,000 workers and have no impact on its comparison to the U.S. population. v

Jeremiah Stettler is a staff writer at the Saginaw News. You may reach him at 776-9685.
 

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