
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, September 12, 1994                   TAG: 9409130050
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

EPA REPORT SAYS DIOXIN PROBABLY CAUSES CANCER

The Environmental Protection Agency has concluded in a long-awaited study that dioxin - a class of potent chemical compounds that works its way into fish, meat and dairy products - probably causes cancer in human beings.

The 2,000-page EPA report, which is to be released Tuesday and is the EPA's strongest statement about the cancer threat of dioxins, reinforces a tentative conclusion EPA reached in 1985. The study stops just short of labeling dioxin a known carcinogen, which would call for more study on human exposure levels, an EPA official said.

The EPA study estimates that dioxin and related compounds are responsible for between one in 1,000 and one in 10,000 of all cancers, according to the study, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. The most common cancer presumed to be associated with exposure to dioxin is lung cancer.

The study said that most adverse effects from dioxin occur at a level 10 to 100 times that to which most Americans are exposed.

Although dioxin first came to public attention as a contaminant in the herbicide Agent Orange used in the Vietnam War, 99 percent of known dioxin emissions now come as a byproduct of incineration of medical and municipal waste that contains some form of chlorine.

by CNB