Document Xz3R4BZ1aO5MLG58aXadDgJYB

r l jAEXHIBIT RACHEL'S HAZARDOUS WASTE NEWS #171 P ro v id in g n e w s and re so u rc e s to the M o ve m e n t fo r E n v iro n m e n ta l J u stic e -- M a rc h 7, 1 9 9 0 Dioxin-Part 1 DIOXINS AND CANCER: FRAUDULENT STUDIES For ye ars, industry scientists have been claim ing there's no evidence that dioxins cau se cancer in hum ans. N ow there is mounting evidence that such d a im s rely heavily on studies that are fraudulent Two com panies recem iy accused of producing fraudulent dioxin-and-health data are M onsanto and B A S F . Uonsanto A scientist with U.S. Environm ental Protection A ge n cy (E P A ) sa y s M onsanto falsified data in im portant stu d ie s that M onsanto used to support its daim that dioxin d o e s not cause cancer in hum ans. Dr. Cate Jenkins, a chem ist in E P A 's Office of Solid W aste and Em ergency R esponse, s a y s E P A itself re lied upon M o n sa n to 's fraudulent data in setting health stand ards for cfioxin, and Jenkins h a s a sk e d the E P A 's Scie n ce A d viso ry Board to reopen the matter of E P A 's dioxin stand ards, to take a fresh look at available data.1 Tw o im portant sou rce s of dioxins in the environ m ent are old chem ical dumps and the incineration of m unicipal solid w astes,2 which is w hy E P A is con cerned about allow able levels of hum an exp osures to dioxin. BASF The British technical journal, New Scientist says, "A new a n a ly sis by a W est G erm an epidem iologist m ay have established the first d earcu t evidence of a direct link betw een exposure to dioxins and cancer in hum ans. Friedem ann Rohleder, an independent sp e c ia list h a s produced a report detailing an unexpec tedly high incidence of cancer am ong w orkers exposed to dioxins during an industrial acd d e n t at a chem icals plant in 1953.* T h e p la n t operated by the W e st G erm an com pany B A S F , m ade trichlorophenol. R ohleder claim s the com pany presented the data in a w ay that d is guised the cancers," sa y s New Scientist Background E ach of these d a im s of fraud relates to an in dustrial accident in w hich w orkers w ere exposed to dioxins; follow -up medical stud ies funded by the responsible com panies have been published in m ain stream scientific journals, d aim ing to sh ow that no e x c e ss can ce rs have occurred in the dioxin-exposed w orkers. In fa ct e xcess cancers have occurred, but it ap p ea rs that the data have been manipulated to hide the facts. The Monsanto Case In 1949, an explosion occurred at a Monsanto chem ical factory in Nitro, W est Virginia; a s a result m any w orkers in the plant were exposed to the he rbid de 2,4,5-T, w hich w a s contam inated with dioxin. (T h is herbidde w a s laier the principal com ponent of A gen t O range, the chem ical defoliant u sed by the U.S. in Viet Nam .) In subsequent years, two Monsanto scientists, J A . Z a c k and R. W . Gaffey, studied the exp osed w orkers, com paring their health against the health of a sim ilar group of w orkers w ho were not exp osed to dioxin or 2,4,5-T.4 A ccording to court docum ents attached to the E P A m em o,"Zack and G affey deliberately and knowingly omitted 5 deaths from the exposed group and took four w orkers w ho had been exposed and put these w orkers in the unexposed group, serving, of course, to d ecrea se the death rate in the exposed group and increase the death rate in the unexposed group." O ther studies of this sam e accident were also fraudulent according to the sam e court documents, including a study b y R .R . Su sk in d published in the Journal of the American Medical Association? T h is published study of the w orkers exposed in the 1949 acd d e n t reported only 14 can ce rs in the exposed group and 6 in the u n e x p o se d . group (a smaller cohort). How ever, the m edical records produced [by M onsanto] to the Plaintiffs con d u sive ly prove gro ss m iscalculations and om issions... there were 28 can c e rs in the group that had been exposed to dioxins in 1949 a s op p osed to only 2 can cers in the unexposed group." Mr. S u sk in d published two other reports1,7 on the sa m e a c d d e n t u sin g h is sa m e data, to reach the co n d u sio n that cfioxin d o e s not ca u se cancer. The BASF Case O n the night of Novem ber 17, 1953, a runaway chem ical reaction spew ed dioxin-contam inated chemi c a ls over w orkers an d com m unity residents of two sm all G erm an cities, M annheim and Ludwigshafen. Subsequently, an epidem iological study w as used to d en y w orkers an y com pensation for ailments they claim ed they suffered a s a result of exposure. In keeping with G erm an law, the w orkers retained their ow n expert to review the data. Their expert Friede m ann Rohleder, received the data from the Germ an governm ent but found, to his surprise, that all the data actually cam e from the B A S F com pany itself. He analyzed the data and found that som e w orkers suffering from chloracne, which is universally ack now ledged to be evidence of high exposure to dioxin, had been placed in the low -exposure or non-exposed group. He found evidence of "diluting" the exposed group with 2 0 plant supervisory staff who, Rohleder believes, w ere not exposed. W hen Rohleder omitted the 20 su p e rvisory staff, his an a lysis revealed statisti cally significant increases in two gro u p s of cancers: can ce rs of the respiratory organs (lungs, trachea, etc.), and can ce rs of the digestive tract. 'T h is analysis ad d s further evidence to an association between dioxin exposure and hum an m alignancy," Rohleder told New Scientist [To be continued.]1 1Cate Jenkins, "Mem o to Raymond Loehr. Newly Revealed Fraud by M onsam o in an Epidemioiogicai Study Used by EP A to A sse ss Human health Effects from Dioxins," dated February 23, 1990. Jenkins is a chemist with the Waste Characterization Branch (O S 332), Characterization and Assessm ent Division, U.S. EPA, 401 M S t, SW , W ashing ton, D C 20460. Loehr is Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the Science Advisory Board (A-101), O ffcs of the Administrator, U.S. EPA, 401 M S t, SW , W ashing ton, D C 20460. The Jenkins memo has attached to it 25 pages of a brief filed in Case No. 5-68-0420, in the Appellate Court of Illinois, Fifth District by attorneys suing Monsanto on behalf of plaintiffs who say they were harmed when a Norfolk and Western railroad tank car derailed, spilling 19,000 gallons of a Monsanto chemical called "OOP-crude" Into the community of Sturgeon, Missouri the night of January 10,1979. Chief attorney for the plaintiffs is Rex Carr, 412 Missouri Avenue, East SL Louis, Q. 62201; phone (618) 274-0434. Our thanks to Margo Blackwell, People Against the Incinerator (PAT1), Bloom ington, Indiana, and to E P A official William Sanjour, both of whom independently sent us the information about Monsanto. W e can mail copies of the Jenkins memo and attachments (28 pages) for $14.00, which covers our actual costs of photocopying, handling and mailing. *Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Toxicological Profile for 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin [ATSDR/TP-88/23; PB89-214522] (Springfield, VA: National Technical Informa tion Service, June, 1989), pg. 22, identifies dumps and incinerators as "the important sources of 2^,7,8-TCDD exposure to the general population." This is the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry [ATSDR] toxicoiogicai profile for dioxin (See RHWN 4169.) 1 Stephanie Wanchinksi, "New Analysis links dioxin to cancer," New Scientist October 28,1989, pg. 24. Thanks to Paul Connett of W ork on Waste USA, we have a copy of Friedemann Rohlederis paper, which he presented in late September at a doxin conference in Toronto, Ontario; Rohlederis paper is entitled "Dioxins and Cancer MortalityReanalysis of the B A S F C ohort" We can mail you the 14page Rohleder paper for $7.00, or you can request a copy directly from the author Friedemann Rohleder, Friedrich Hebei Sir. 1 3 ,1 7 1 2 Weme, West Germany. 4 Zack, J A , and W. R. Gaffey, "A Mortality Study Of W orkers Employed At The Monsanto Company Plant In Nftro, West Virginia," EnvironmentalScience Research, Vol. 26 (1983), pgs. 575-591. * R J l Suskind, and V.S. Hertzberg, "Human Health Effects Of 2,4,5-T And Its Toxic Contaminants," Journal of the American Medical Association, VoL 251, No. 18 (1984), pgs. 2372-2380. *RJT. Suskind, "Chloracne, T he Hallmark Of Dioxin In toxication," Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment and Health, VoL 11, No. 3 (1985), pgs. 165-171. 7R J l Suskind, "Long-Term Health Effects Of Exposure To 2,4,5-T And/Or tts Contaminants," Chemosphere, VoL 12, No. 4-5 (1983), pg. 769. Rachefs Hazardous Waste News is published weekly by Environmental Research Foundation, P.O. Box 3541, Princeton, NJ 08543. Editor: Peter Montague, P tiD .; Associate E d ito r Maria B. Pellerano; A ssistant E t flo r Annette Eubank; W est Coast E tflo r Tim Montague; s ubscriptions: Abigail Allen, Office Manager. 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