Drug, Dioxin [apfn-1] Residents line up for dioxin exposure study in Michigan

December 11, 2004

I have to confess my complete ignorance on the issue of dioxin. Is this some industrial pollutant?

What are the symptoms of poisoning? If it's in Michigan where they are now testing, where else could it be?

Does anyone know what that big settlement in Anniston, Alabama last year was for? It was something environmental.

How could anyone not immediately know that if an animal or human is in an environment that animal or human is going to absorb what is in that animals or human's environment and that means it will be in the blood?

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Residents line up for dioxin exposure study

Friday, December 10, 2004

JEREMIAH STETTLER

THE SAGINAW NEWS

http://www.mlive.com/news/sanews/index.ssf?/base/news-13/1102693839170200.xml

Mid-Michigan residents aren't shying away from the needle when it comes to a University of Michigan dioxin study, researchers say.

Calling the response rate "phenomenal," U-M scientists reported Thursday that nearly 80 percent of Saginaw and Midland county residents who were asked to participate have agreed to do so.

The study will determine whether dioxin in the soil is absorbed in their blood.

"The participation in these communities exceeded our projections dramatically," said lead researcher David Garabrant, a U-M professor of occupational medicine and epidemiology.

"With few exceptions, people want to participate."

The $15 million study seeks to answer the elusive question of exposure -- namely, whether high dioxin levels in the soil translate into high dioxin levels in the blood.

Scientists will examine the blood, dust and soil of 525 residents in Midland and Saginaw counties and 175 in presumably uncontaminated Jackson and Calhoun counties in south-central Michigan.

Garabrant reported Thursday that scientists have interviewed 375 residents since late September. They also have collected blood from 286 people and dust from 216 and soil from 213 properties.

Garabrant said he has outpaced his projections by more than two-fold. He originally hoped to interview and collect samples from just 175 people by winter.

"We are well beyond our projections, to our delight," he said, "although we have been running flat out to achieve it."

Yet suspicions linger over a study some residents denounce as a "smoke screen" to divert attention from Dow Chemical Co.'s responsibility to clean up dioxin contamination along the tainted Tittabawassee River.

"Is there any reason to think that dioxin is not being absorbed by people such as myself?" asked Martha Stimpson, a Thomas Township resident who is suing Dow over dioxin contamination.

Stimpson, 58, recently discovered dioxin concentrations of 1,000 parts per trillion in her soil and 33 parts per trillion in her blood during a state study.

"I've got my results," she said. "I know I'm living in a toxic waste dump. Is there any reason on earth to say, 'Gee, could I possibly be absorbing it?' It seems ridiculous to me."

Garabrant doesn't think so. He said scientists don't know whether a connection exists between dioxin in the soil and in the blood.

"We want to get the facts, not jump to conclusions that something must be true in the absence of evidence," he said.

Robert W. Belfit, Jr., a Midland resident and senior vice president of the technical consulting business Omni Tech, backed the study as laying the groundwork for future dioxin studies.

"It is a way to get the basic data on which you are going to build a house," he said. "If you are going to build something, you have to have a good foundation. This is a good foundation."

Howard Steinmetz, a Saginaw Township resident whose home lies within 30 feet of the Tittabawassee River, said the study is side-stepping the more pressing issue of health. Instead of asking if dioxin is present, he said scientists should look for the "hot spots" where it is causing harm.

"I don't think we realize the seriousness of what is happening here," he said. "This is another Love Canal (N.Y.) or Times Beach, Missouri. We are slowly being poisoned."

Garabrant said his study must serve as a precursor to such investigations.

"We have to find out whether people are getting dioxin in their bodies before we analyze disease patterns," he said. "We need facts, not assumptions." v

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

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Milo

George

Saturday, December 11, 2004 12:39 AM

[apfn-1] Residents line up for dioxin exposure study

Residents line up for dioxin exposure study

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