The audience met at the Freeland Elementary School cafeteria and watched a 20-minute presentation that explained the study. Then the community advisory panel and U-M scientists spent more than an hour answering questions.

University of Michigan team leader and spokesperson David Garabrant said a sample of 700 participants will be selected for a blood test, an in-home dust test and at least one soil core test from their property.

The study will test residents of five counties: Midland, Saginaw, Bay, Jackson and Calhoun. Participants from Jackson and Calhoun are considered to have low levels of dioxin exposure and will be part of a control group.

"We are comparing people who live in the contaminated area to people who live in an area that's not known to be contaminated," Garabrant said.

Participants will be selected randomly, but will be monitored to accurately represent the population, said James Lepkowski, who will oversee participant selection.

Saginaw resident John Taylor lives on the Tittabawassee flood plain and is part of a class action law suit against Dow Chemical Co. He said he doubts the sample will be random because the study is being paid for by Dow.

Garabrant said Taylor has as much of a chance of being chosen as anyone else in the area.

"The lawsuit has nothing to do with this study. We will ask you to participate and we want you to participate in our study," he said.

Lepkowski said the nature of the sampling selection ensures that Taylor and others involved in the lawsuit may be chosen. He said the questionnaire does not ask about the suit.

"We ask about things that are relevant to the study: age, weight, pregnancy, breast feeding, medications," he said. "These are safety issues."

Despite the scientists' assurance, Taylor is doubtful.

"They won't call me. I'm absolutely sure of it," he said.

Taylor was also suspicious of the community advisory panelists, saying they all have some kind of connection to Dow Chemical Co.

Panelist Allen Veenkant denied having any interest in Dow Chemical Co., saying he only moved to the area from the Upper Peninsula seven years ago.

"That's an awful long ways from the Dow Chemical Co.," Veenkant, superintendent of the Freeland Community School District, said.

He said he joined the committee because he thinks the study is important to the community at large. He added he did not know who the other panelists would be before he agreed to participate.

Garabrant said he and Alfred Franzblau, another U-M scientist, decided who would be asked to sit on the panel. He said the decision was based on level of community involvement, not connections to Dow, and they tried to make the panel as diverse as possible.