Lone Tree Council and TRW
DIOXIN UPDATE # 137
January 29, 2009
Press Release: Release the Dioxin Reassessment
This week over 100 groups, including Lone Tree Council and TRW, across the nation called on the Obama administration to release the Dioxin Reassessment. Our friends at CHEJ initiated the letter.
It’s been almost 25 years since the EPA issued their first report on dioxin. The report awaiting release all these years is the Dioxin Reassessment. Since that first report the chemical industry has labored and lobbied against its release demanding the EPA define a “threshold” below which dioxin is not toxic. But in 1991 and 1994 EPA fortified their position on dioxin stating there was 1. No threshold, which was safe 2. The chemical acts like a hormone disrupting human systems 3. Background exposures could cause adverse effects. In 2000 EPA said the risks of getting cancer were 10 times higher than previously thought.
On her visit to Saginaw, EPA’s dioxin expert Dr.Linda Birnbuam told the audience the following:
Of course Dow will debate the toxicity and effects of dioxin because it is in their financial interest to do so. Given the extensive studies on dioxin Dow's position is hardly a principled position. Responsible Care and the Human Element are public relations campaigns for the company-- these monikers have no footing in reality. To suggest as Dow has, that there is no problem with this extensive contamination is anything but principled. It is not OK for people to be exposed to dioxin by living on contaminated property, inhaling contaminated dust, eating contaminated fish or just being a kid playing in the yard. It is not OK for a developing baby to be exposed to dioxin while being carried in their mother's body or nursing at her breast---
Is Dow Chemical capable of doing great things? You bet. They have the smarts, the talent and the expertise--they lack vision and a commitment to the hard work of doing good. You are not excused from doing the right things in life because of power, profit, access or greed.
No doubt Dow will continue to lobby against the release of the Dioxin Reassessment while telling this community it's ok to live with the company's dioxin waste running through the heart of the watershed.
January 27th 2009
Environmental Groups to Obama: Release Dioxin Report After Twenty Years of Delays
Over 100 Environmental Health Groups Fight Bush’s Eleventh Hour Gift to the Chemical Industry
Falls Church, VA – Today over 100 environmental health, environmental justice, health-affected, and labor groups called on President Barack Obama to release the EPA’s report on dioxins, one of the most toxic chemicals on earth. In a letter to President Obama, groups decried President Bush’s last minute gift to the chemical industry by calling for another review of the science, which will only lead to paralysis as the EPA finds its hands too tied to issue urgently needed regulations of dioxin emissions and cleanups.
The Press Release
http://www.chej.org/newsreleases/Press_Release_Dioxins_1_16.htm
For more information on the history of delays of this report, please visit:
http://besafenet.com/campaigns/dioxin_history.shtml
The letter to President Obama
http://www.chej.org/documents/Dioxin_Letter_To_Obama.pdf
Henry et al vs. Dow
In a surprising change of pace, plaintiffs were notified today that the Michigan Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in March. It has been 2 days since the residents brief was filed for Dow Chemical's appeal on class certification for Dow's dioxin contamination of the Tittabawassee River and floodplain. The original complaint was filed in March of 2003.
Case #136298 in the appeals court.
The notice said the hearing would be on the March 2-3 docket, specific day and time to be announced February 10.
Chronology of events of Henry V Dow ( by Kathy Henry)
March 25 2003 class action lawsuit filed in Saginaw Circuit Court
August 20 2003 Saginaw judge allows medical monitoring to proceed
October 3 2003 Dow files emergency appeal to court of appeals to stay case while reconsidering medical monitoring
October 29 2003 Court of appeals refuses to hear Dow medical monitoring appeal
December 11 2003 Dow files appeal to Michigan Supreme Court to appeal medical monitoring
June 4 2004 Michigan Supreme court agrees to hear Dow appeal on medical monitoring, stays property damages/damages claim until medical monitoring is resolved
October 6 2004 Oral arguments heard in Supreme Court over medical monitoring
July 13 2005 Supreme Court rules in favor of Dow, denying medical monitoring
September 15 2005 Class certification hearing in Saginaw Circuit court
October 21 2005 Judge Borrello certifies class action lawsuit for property damages/damages
December 7 2005 Michigan court of appeals agrees to hear Dow's appeal of class certification, stays all proceedings until an answer is rendered
March 21 2007 Michigan court of appeals announces it will hear Dows appeal on May 7 2007
January 25 2008 Court of appeals grants plaintiffs motion for class action status
April 30 2008 Dow appeals to Michigan Supreme court to reconsider class action certification in court of appeals and circuit court
November 5 2008 One day after the elections the Michigan Supreme Court agrees to hear Dow appeal to deny class action status for Tittabawassee River residents
The Superfund Alternative Site Process
Unfortunately nothing to report because the talks are private between the government and the polluter.
Regards,
Michelle Hurd Riddick
Lone Tree Council
Source: Lone Tree Council / TRW
For additional articles like this one, go to the Tittabawassee River Watch web site www.trwnews.net. for complete coverage of the Tittabawassee River Dow Chemical dioxin contamination saga.. The source organization's web site link is listed above. The Newspaper / Media page of our site contains an extensive archive of media articles dating back to January 2002. The Newspaper / Media page may be accessed by scrolling down to the bottom of the CONTENTS section and clicking on the Newspaper/Media link.