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#390 (05/19/94): Dioxin Reassessed, Part 1 Page 6 of 9 <br /> Dioxins are produced in very small quantities, if at all, by <br /> nature. EPA says, " . . .the presence of dioxin-like compounds it <br /> the environment occurs primarily as a result of industrial <br /> practices. " [pg. 61 <br /> EPA identifies 4 major sources of dioxin in the environment: <br /> (1) COMBUSTION AND INCINERATION SOURCES. This category include <br /> incineration of municipal solid waste, sewage sludge, hospital <br /> wastes and hazardous wastes; metallurgical operations, such as <br /> high-temperature steel production, smelting operations, and sci <br /> metal recovery furnaces; and the burning of coal, wood, petrole <br /> products and used tires for power or energy <br /> generation. Cigarette smoke, crematories, volcanoes and forest <br /> fires are "minor sources, " says EPA. [pg. 71 (Forest fires <br /> release dioxins that have been discharged by industrial smoke <br /> stacks and have fallen onto the leaves of trees; by similar <br /> means, leaf compost can be contaminated by dioxins [pg. 8] .) <br /> (2) CHEMICAL MANUFACTURING/PROCESSING SOURCES. Dioxins and <br /> dioxin-like compounds are created by the manufacture of chlorin <br /> and such chlorinated compounds as chlorinated phenols, PCBs, <br /> phenoxy herbicides (e.g. , 2,4,5-T, 2,4-D and 11 others) , <br /> chlorinated benzenes, chlorinated aliphatic compounds, <br /> chlorinated catalysts, and halogenated diphenyl ethers. [pg. 71 <br /> Although manufacture of many chlorinated phenols, and PCBs, <br /> ceased in the U.S. around 1980, use and disposal are continuinc <br /> both inside and outside the U.S. Large quantities of PCBs are <br /> "storage" in leaking landfills; another billion pounds of PCBs <br /> (about 1/3 of all PCBs ever manufactured) simply cannot be <br /> accounted for (see RHWN #327) . <br /> http://www.monitor.net/racliel/r390.liti-nl 8/13/98 <br />