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TRW Archives 2006 4th quarter 10/01/06 - 12/31/06

12/07/06 View Dow's Human Element ad campaign in a new light

Just in from the Boston Coalition for Justice in Bhopal:

We have a wonderful filmmaker in our midst here in the Boston Coalition for Justice in Bhopal. Her name is Birgit Werner and she has taken the Dow Human Element TV Ad on YouTube and made it wholly what it should be, but set to the same sound track!!! Bravo! Pass on this wonderful film that shows what Dow really is all about. Yours, Aquene

12/06/06 Moolenaar Bill 5672 passed in Senate committee

HB5872 passes in senate committee.  The bill originally would have required the state to recalculate the criteria based on a report released in July by the National Research Council of the National Academies.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality suggested a substitute, which was passed, that included that the Department "may" recalculate cleanup criteria for dioxin based on the new information. 

Midland Daily News

12/05/06 Moolenaar slips polluter free ride bill 5872 into senate before year end

"The Senate's Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs committee is expected to conduct a hearing on House Bill 5872 today. The bill would require the state to recalculate its dioxin contamination cleanup criteria based on a report expected to be released in upcoming months by the National Academy of Sciences."  Click here for details from the Midland Daily News.

Click here for details of Moolenaar's past efforts to pay back his Midland masters.

12/03/06 Dioxin levels higher in region

Dr. Neill Varner says in his Nov. 17 letter, "Studying relative risks," that he appreciates the efforts of the University of Michigan dioxin exposure study team. "Their work, already recognized by the world scientific community, adds immensely to our understanding of the local dioxin burden of Saginaw and Midland county citizens exposed to dioxins along the Tittabawassee River."

How could that be? Other specialists have also expressed their opinions of the University of Michigan study.

Former Dow Chemical Co. engineer, and now manager of ChemTelligence Inc., David L. Linhardt tells us the dioxin exposure study team compared dioxin serum levels found in Michigan residents against levels measured by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2000-2001.

To improve the validity of the comparison, the serum levels measured in 2000-2001 must be adjusted to 2005, the year in which the University of Michigan researchers sampled the blood of Michigan residents. It's believed that U-M did not adjust the cited level to year 2005.

Furthermore, on a year 2005 to year 2005 comparison, the median Michigan dioxin serum level measured by U-M is more than 70 percent higher than the national median, a difference much higher than the 10 percent elevation reported by U-M.

The U-M study also reported dioxin serum levels by other statistical parameters: mean, 95th percentile, and maximum levels. Based on these parameters, Michigan serum levels are 52 percent to 120 percent higher than the corresponding 2005 national survey levels.

Richard A. Maltby

Midland

11/29/06 Dow fined $84.8 million

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) – The European Commission imposed fines of about $682 million Wednesday against five companies, including The Dow Chemical Co., which it said had fixed prices on synthetic rubber used in tires. Click here for details.

Perhaps this is a new phase of Dow's "The Human Element" campaign, will they add the following?

Below are a few more examples of Dow's stellar performance as a "good neighbor"

11/18/06 Lone Tree/TRW Dioxin Update

Click here for the all the details

11/16/06 Study indicates dioxin affects male reproductive system

A dioxin toxin contained in the herbicide Agent Orange affects male reproductive health by limiting the growth of the prostate gland and lowering testosterone levels, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found in a cohort study of more than 2,000 Air Force veterans who served during the Vietnam War.

The study, published in the November issue of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, indicates that exposure to TCDD, the most toxic dioxin contained in Agent Orange, may disturb the male endocrine and reproductive systems in several ways.

Click here for details

11/16/06 Dioxin associated with decreased testosterone levels

Study: Serum Dioxin-like Activity Is Associated with Reproductive Parameters in Young Men from the General Flemish Population

Results: Age (p = 0.04) and the frequency of fish (p = 0.02) and egg (p = 0.001) consumption were independent positive determinants of serum dioxin-like activity. After correcting for possible confounders, we found that a 2-fold increase in CALUX-TEQ > 16 pg/L was associated with a 7.1% and 6.8% (both p = 0.04) decrease in total and free testosterone, respectively. We also observed a more pronounced drop in semen volume of 16.0% (p = 0.03) , whereas sperm concentration rose by 25.2% (p = 0.07) . No relationship was found with total sperm count or sperm morphology.

Conclusions: "These data suggest an interaction of dioxin-like compounds with the secretory function of the seminal vesicles or prostate, possibly indirectly through an effect on testosterone secretion, at levels not affecting spermatogenesis as such."

Click here for details

11/08/06 DEQ Dioxin Community Meeting

The Department of Environmental Quality and The Dow Chemical Company are
hosting the next quarterly Midland/Saginaw/Bay City (Tri-Cities) Dioxin
Community Meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 8, 2006, at the
Horizons Conference Center, 6200 State Street, Saginaw.  This meeting is
open to the public.  The press release and agenda for the meeting are
available at:
 
http://www.michigan.gov/deq/0,1607,7-135--155142--,00.html
http://www.deq.state.mi.us/documents/deq-whm-hwp-11-08-06-com-meeting-agenda.pdf

Supporting materials to be discussed at the meeting are available at
the following location:

http://www.michigan.gov/deq/0,1607,7-135-3307_29693_21234-115743--,00.html

This meeting has also been announced in the local newspapers.  Please
share this notice with others who might be interested in attending this
meeting or forward their e-mail addresses to me for inclusion on the
distribution list.  If you should have any questions, please contact
me.

Cheryl Howe
Environmental Engineering Specialist
Hazardous Waste Management Unit
Hazardous Waste Section
517-373-9881/517-373-4797 Fax

10/24/06 Lone Tree/TRW Dioxin Update

Introducing DREDGE IT RIGHT!

www.dredgeitright.org

10/20/06 Lone Tree/TRW Dioxin Update

Click here for the all the details

10/06/06 New website focuses on significant findings not mentioned in U/M study

David Linhardt, a Chemical Engineer formerly employed by Dow,  has a new website devoted entirely  to the University of Michigan Dioxin Exposure Study.   Below is his introduction to the new site:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The recent U/M Dioxin Exposure Study did not fully explain the significance of elevated dioxin blood serum levels found in Michigan residents. In addition, the U/M did not discuss many of the significant findings presented in the supplied data tables.

1. When compared on a year 2005 to year 2005 basis, Michigan median serum levels are 70% higher than the national levels. This elevation is much greater than the 10% increase reported by the U/M. When compared on a mean, 95th percentile and maximum level basis, Michigan serum levels are from 52% to 125% higher than US levels.
2. Dioxin serum levels in the Midland Dow Plume are lower than other Michigan areas. The U/M has kept the specific locations that were sampled confidential. However, based on data from previous soil sampling programs, more than 70% of the locations sampled in Midland by the U/M may have been two miles or more from the Dow incineration complex. Only 2 out of a total of 31 samples may have been taken in heavily contaminated neighborhoods. Although Midland serum levels are low compared to other Michigan study zones, average serum levels in Midland are still nearly 150% higher than the corresponding 2005 US level.
3. The U/M found very high dioxin blood serum levels even in background areas believed to be regions of low dioxin contamination. Every Michigan area studied by the U/M was found to have dioxin serum levels significantly higher than 2005 US national levels. The study confirmed that dioxin contamination in Michigan is more wide-spread than previously believed and not just confined to the Midland/Saginaw area.

A comprehensive analysis of the U/M study, including information not discussed in the U/M report, can be found on a new website  www.MI-Dioxins.com  The website will only carry information related to the U/M dioxin blood serum report.

The Executive Summary of the analysis has been provided as an attachment to this email. If you believe that the analysis has value, please forward information on the analysis and the website to persons concerned about the levels of dioxins being found in the human body.

David Linhardt

10/06/06 Scientist: Study may have underestimated cancer risk to veterans

"The scientist who worked on a 25-year study of the impact of handling Agent Orange on the health of Air Force veterans says the study may have underestimated the risk of cancer in Vietnam War vets exposed to the defoliant.

The $140 million health study ended Sept. 30 and found an elevated risk of diabetes for those veterans who handled the chemical but no clear links to cancer. ...

Ron Trewyn, a biochemist and member of the Ranch Hand study advisory committee, reviewed the cancer chapter for that last report and argued that it should include data Michalek used to write the 2004 and 2005 articles in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

"They referenced those papers, but they left all the data out from those cancer papers that were done that showed the cancer effects," he said. "It's huge because then the conclusion is there's no cancer effect when as part of the study, the same investigators, just analyzing the data in a different way, found that when they did that, lo and behold, then there were significant cancer effects.

"And so for the final report to say there's no cancer effect when the investigators themselves published papers saying there is a cancer effect, that's just flat scientifically wrong." "

Associated Press article

10/06/06 Dioxin body burden significantly affects estrogen metabolism

"This is the first report on the association of human body burdens of PCDDs/PCDFs and PCBs with estrogen metabolites. The information presented is crucial to understand their hormonally related health effects in women, such as the risk for breast cancer".

Abstract excerpts:

Dioxins (PCDDs), furans (PCDFs), and biphenyls (PCBs) are environmental endocrine disruptors that have half-lives of 7–10 years in the human body and have toxicities that probably include carcinogenesis. ...  In this cohort study of maternal–fetal pairs, we examined the relationship of PCDD/PCDF and PCB exposure to levels of estrogen metabolites in the sera of 50 pregnant women 25–34 years of age from central Taiwan. ... We measured 17 dioxin congeners, 12 dioxin-like PCBs, and 6 indicator PCBs in placenta ... Altered estrogen catabolism might be associated with body burdens of PCDDs/PCDFs. Our study suggests that exposure to PCDDs/PCDFs significantly affects estrogen metabolism. Therefore, PCDD/PCDF exposure must be considered when using the OH-E₂ ratio as a breast cancer marker.

Body Burdens of Polychlorinated Dibenzo-p-dioxins, Dibenzofurans, and Biphenyls and Their Relations to Estrogen Metabolism in Pregnant Women

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