Eating fish, game from river can boost dioxin exposure, state warns

Pamphlet warns residents near Tittabawasee flood plain of health dangers

Associated Press / Detroit News

SAGINAW -- Regularly eating fish and game from the Tittabawassee River can dramatically increase dioxin exposure, state officials warn in a brochure distributed to area residents.

Dioxin, a persistent and toxic chemical, was a byproduct of Dow Chemical Co. processes dating back several decades. It settled into the soil and river sediment along the river's flood plain downstream from the company headquarters. Dioxin has been linked to cancer, birth defects and organ failure.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality recently mailed the pamphlet to about 500 people living along the river who are eligible for landscaping and house cleaning because of dioxin.

"This isn't a scare tactic," DEQ spokesman Robert McCann told The Saginaw News for a story published Friday. "What this is doing is presenting some scientific data in a real-world scenario so people can understand it."

Dow officials say the brochure distorts the facts.

"We don't agree with everything in that brochure ... as being a true depiction of the risks of living on the flood plain," spokesman John C. Musser said.

By eating walleye for dinner one night and deer the next night once a month, a riverside resident would increase dioxin exposure 320 percent over what the average adult experiences -- even if the person heeded every state precaution for avoiding contact with the soil, the brochure says.

Alter the diet to one meal of catfish and another of deer, deer liver or wild turkey and the exposure rises 1,000 percent higher than that of the average adult, the document says.

Worst-case scenario: a person who eats seven meals of sport fish from the Tittabawassee River a month -- a diet that also would include bottom-feeders such as catfish and carp -- and ignores all recommendations for avoiding dioxin.

That person would increase exposure to the contaminant 3,900 percent, the pamphlet says.

Dow's operating license requires the company to distribute the brochure to properties with elevated dioxin levels.

Company officials contend that riverside residents face no "imminent health threat." They say the state's assumptions in developing its advisory, such as the amount of dioxin absorbed into the blood when a person swallows soil, are extreme.

Linda Dykema, manager of the Toxicology and Response Section of the state Department of Community Health, said the numbers are based on hard science.

The brochure doesn't discuss health effects. But Dykema said it is reasonable to assume that people with higher exposure are likelier to develop health problems.

"We're trying to drive home the point that people should adhere to the fish advisory," Dykema said. "We hope to reach those people who are taking their catch home for dinner."