Saturday, December 04, 2004

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Our churches come in all sizes and shapes. We are proud of our churches, our beliefs and our diversity.

Last month (11.11.2004) there was a letter to the editor of The Saginaw News pointing out two recent deaths along the Tittabawassee River floodplain. Both of these people died of cancer so the writer concludes dioxin was the cause. One of these people fished, hunted and ate what he killed along the river plain. The other 'cooked with and drank only purified, filtered bottled water.' I guess the implication is he did not kill and cook his own meat. So what's the connection? I'm not sure! I guess the author thinks dioxin exists in the air around the river???

Once again Dr. Varner, Medical Director of the Saginaw County Health Department explains the fallacy of such belief. Read these two letters here. Among other things Dr. Varner says:
'It has been shown that many of the effects of dioxin exposure occur in a non-monotonic fashion. In other words, the dose response curve behaves oddly, with some health effects occurring at very low-level exposures, while those same effects disappear at higher doses.'
Can't help but interpret this to mean health effects of dioxin exposure are erratic and do not appear to have a predictable direct relationship between exposure and a particular health defect.

Another scare tactic about dioxin is in an email currently circulating about the hazards of using all sorts of common household products. It supposedly came from a Johns-Hopkins Hospital newsletter, but no amount of googling would get me to a connection between Johns-Hopkins and this latest urban myth. If you haven't seen it yet, here it is. Please keep in mind this is not true.

I did a bit more googling and came up with this information from www.phthalates.org explaining that, among other things, FDA approved plastics for handling foods do not contain dioxin!
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