Dioxins and Health

Dioxins and Health
Author: A. Schecter
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 718
Release: 2013-11-11
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1489914625

This book originated in a series of cross-disciplinary conversations in the years 1984-1990 between the editor, who is a physician-researcher involved in clinical and laboratory research, and a dioxin toxicologist. During the years in which the conversations took place, an extraordinary amount of new scientific literature was published related to dioxins, defined for purposes of this text as the chlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, dibenzofurans, polychlorinated biphe nyls (PCB's) and other compounds that are structurally and toxicologically similar to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (2,3,7 ,8-TCDD), the most extensively studied and most toxic of this group of chemicals. Dioxins also began to interest not only chemists and toxicologists, but also specialists from diverse disciplines such as wildlife and environmental science, immunology, neuroscience,public health, epidemiology, med icine, government, law, sociology, and journalism. Specialists from such varied disciplines, while familiar with their own literature, frequently did not have time to follow the dioxin literature outside their specialty area. In addition, each specialty had unique knowledge, methods, and perspectives. Cross disciplinary conversation was necessary, but all too frequently, specialists from the various disciplines did not speak the same language, resulting in misunderstanding.

Dioxins and Dioxin-like Compounds in the Food Supply

Dioxins and Dioxin-like Compounds in the Food Supply
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 341
Release: 2003-12-21
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309089611

Dioxin and dioxin-like compounds, or DLCs, are found throughout the environment, in soil, water, and air. People are exposed to these unintentional environmental contaminants primarily through the food supply, although at low levels, particularly by eating animal fat in meat, dairy products, and fish. While the amount of DLCs in the environment has declined since the late 1970s, the public continues to be concerned about the safety of the food supply and the potential adverse health effects of DLC exposure, especially in groups such as developing fetuses and infants, who are more sensitive to the toxic effects of these compounds. Dioxins and Dioxin-like Compounds in the Food Supply: Strategies to Decrease Exposure, recommends policy options to reduce exposure to these contaminants while considering how implementing these options could both reduce health risks and affect nutrition, particularly in sensitive and highly exposed groups, if dietary changes are suggested.

Waste Incineration and Public Health

Waste Incineration and Public Health
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2000-10-21
Genre: Science
ISBN: 030906371X

Incineration has been used widely for waste disposal, including household, hazardous, and medical wasteâ€"but there is increasing public concern over the benefits of combusting the waste versus the health risk from pollutants emitted during combustion. Waste Incineration and Public Health informs the emerging debate with the most up-to-date information available on incineration, pollution, and human healthâ€"along with expert conclusions and recommendations for further research and improvement of such areas as risk communication. The committee provides details on: Processes involved in incineration and how contaminants are released. Environmental dynamics of contaminants and routes of human exposure. Tools and approaches for assessing possible human health effects. Scientific concerns pertinent to future regulatory actions. The book also examines some of the social, psychological, and economic factors that affect the communities where incineration takes place and addresses the problem of uncertainty and variation in predicting the health effects of incineration processes.

Environmental Medicine

Environmental Medicine
Author: Committee on Curriculum Development in Environmental Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 988
Release: 1995-05-12
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309568722

People are increasingly concerned about potential environmental health hazards and often ask their physicians questions such as: "Is the tap water safe to drink?" "Is it safe to live near power lines?" Unfortunately, physicians often lack the information and training related to environmental health risks needed to answer such questions. This book discusses six competency based learning objectives for all medical school students, discusses the relevance of environmental health to specific courses and clerkships, and demonstrates how to integrate environmental health into the curriculum through published case studies, some of which are included in one of the book's three appendices. Also included is a guide on where to obtain additional information for treatment, referral, and follow-up for diseases with possible environmental and/or occupational origins.

Health Risks from Dioxin and Related Compounds

Health Risks from Dioxin and Related Compounds
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2006-10-20
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309133882

Although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency presented a comprehensive review of the scientific literature in its 2003 draft reassessment of the risks of dioxin, the agency did not sufficiently quantify the uncertainties and variabilities associated with the risks, nor did it adequately justify the assumptions used to estimate them, according to this new report from the National Academies' National Research Council. The committee that wrote the report recommended that EPA re-estimate the risks using several different assumptions and better communicate the uncertainties in those estimates. The agency also should explain more clearly how it selects both the data upon which the reassessment is based and the methods used to analyze them.

Post-Vietnam Dioxin Exposure in Agent Orange-Contaminated C-123 Aircraft

Post-Vietnam Dioxin Exposure in Agent Orange-Contaminated C-123 Aircraft
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 110
Release: 2015-05-20
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309308933

From 1972 to 1982, approximately 1,500-2,100 US Air Force Reserve personnel trained and worked on C-123 aircraft that had formerly been used to spray herbicides in Vietnam as part of Operation Ranch Hand. After becoming aware that some of the aircraft on which they had worked had previously served this purpose, some of these AF Reservists applied to the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for compensatory coverage under the Agent Orange Act of 1991. The Act provides health care and disability coverage for health conditions that have been deemed presumptively service-related for herbicide exposure during the Vietnam War. The VA denied the applications on the basis that these veterans were ineligible because as non-Vietnam-era veterans or as Vietnam-era veterans without "boots on the ground" service in Vietnam, they were not covered. However, with the knowledge that some air and wipe samples taken between 1979 and 2009 from some of the C-123s used in Operation Ranch Hand showed the presence of agent orange residues, representatives of the C-123 Veterans Association began a concerted effort to reverse VA's position and obtain coverage. At the request of the VA, Post-Vietnam Dioxin Exposure in Agent Orange-Contaminated C-123 Aircraft evaluates whether or not service in these C-123s could have plausibly resulted in exposures detrimental to the health of these Air Force Reservists. The Institute of Medicine assembled an expert committee to address this question qualitatively, but in a scientific and evidence-based fashion. This report evaluates the reliability of the available information for establishing exposure and addresses and places in context whether any documented residues represent potentially harmful exposure by characterizing the amounts available and the degree to which absorption might be expected. Post-Vietnam Dioxin Exposure rejects the idea that the dioxin residues detected on interior surfaces of the C-123s were immobile and effectively inaccessible to the Reservists as a source of exposure. Accordingly, this report states with confidence that the Air Force Reservists were exposed when working in the Operation Ranch Hand C-123s and so experienced some increase in their risk of a variety of adverse responses.

The Health Risks of Dioxin

The Health Risks of Dioxin
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Government Operations. Human Resources and Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee
Publisher:
Total Pages: 162
Release: 1993
Genre: History
ISBN:

Dioxin

Dioxin
Author: Sudarshan Kurwadkar
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2020-01-20
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1351693441

Dioxin – Environmental Fate and Health/Ecological Consequences offers a unique, and comprehensive coverage of dioxins and their congeners once they are released to the environment. The book provides readers with a systematic understanding of past and emerging sources of dioxins, current dioxins inventories and historical trends, fate and long-range transboundary atmospheric transport, human health, and ecological risk and regulatory perspective. Providing an excellent analysis of dioxin exposure through the food chain and impact on human health, it also documents the environmental implications of dioxins on ecological flora and fauna. The book offers readers a holistic understanding about dioxins, their atmospheric fate and transport, distribution in various environmental matrices and various routes and exposure pathways through which human beings are exposed to this persistent organic pollutant. It further offers an insight into the toxicological profile and mechanistic analysis of the onset of cancer, remediation technologies, and existing regulatory framework to deal with the problems associated with dioxins. The book will serve as an excellent resource to environmental professionals, particularly environmental toxicologists, environmental health professionals, remediation engineers, environmental regulatory agencies, policymakers, and environmental law professionals.

Veterans and Agent Orange

Veterans and Agent Orange
Author: Committee to Review the Health Effects in Vietnam Veterans of Exposure to Herbicides
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 791
Release: 1994-01-15
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9780309075299

Have U.S. military personnel experienced health problems from being exposed to Agent Orange, its dioxin contaminants, and other herbicides used in Vietnam? This definitive volume summarizes the strength of the evidence associating exposure during Vietnam service with cancer and other health effects and presents conclusions from an expert panel. Veterans and Agent Orange provides a historical review of the issue, examines studies of populations, in addition to Vietnam veterans, environmentally and occupationally exposed to herbicides and dioxin, and discusses problems in study methodology. The core of the book presents What is known about the toxicology of the herbicides used in greatest quantities in Vietnam. What is known about assessing exposure to herbicides and dioxin. What can be determined from the wide range of epidemiological studies conducted by different authorities. What is known about the relationship between exposure to herbicides and dioxin, and cancer, reproductive effects, neurobehavioral disorders, and other health effects. The book describes research areas of continuing concern and offers recommendations for further research on the health effects of Agent Orange exposure among Vietnam veterans. This volume will be critically important to both policymakers and physicians in the federal government, Vietnam veterans and their families, veterans organizations, researchers, and health professionals.