■The Daily Collegian Monday, June 27, li)8:i
Dioxin:
3-year-old federal report is news to officials
By RICHARD T. PIENCIAK
Associated Press Writer
A 3-year-old federal report listing hundreds of indus
trial sites in 33 states where dioxin might be found
received little or no attention until the toxic substance
was discovered three weeks ago at one of the locations.
Officials from almost half the states mentioned in the
Environmental Protection Agency report, “Dioxins,
told The Associated Press they learned of it only after
high levels of dioxin were found June 2 at an abandoned
factory in Newark, N.J.
In many cases where appropriate state agencies
obtained the report shortly after its November 1980
release, tests for dioxin were not done, according to an
AP survey of the 33 states.
Environmental officials said they had not acted on
the report because of tight budgets, lack of technology
to detect dioxin, emphasis on what were deemed more
serious toxic threats and early ignorance of the serious
ness of potential dioxin contamination.
“While the concern is there ... we don’t have the
data to answer the question because of a lack of
resources,” said Rich Powers, dioxin expert for the
state of Michigan, where dioxin has been detected in 10
rivers. "We haven’t gone far enough ... to know what
the extentof the problem is at this point.”
Officials in Michigan and seven other states on the
list Alabama, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota,
Mississippi and West Virginia —said their state labs
did not have the capability to test for dioxin.
Six states said they were unaware of the report when
contacted by the AP within the past 10 days.
“I never saw the report,” said Stephen W. Hitchcock,
chief of the Connecticut Department of Environmental
Protection’s hazardous waste unit.
“The bottom line is we don’t know anything about it,”
said Atsushi Kiuchi, spokesman for the Washington
state Department of Ecology. “Your inquiry is the first
we’ve heard about it.”
But in Washington, D.C., Rusty Brashear, an EPA
spokesman, said of the report: “It's here. It s not like
it’s been on a shelf. It was not a document held in
confidence. It was used here and intergovernmental
ly.”
He said under normal procedures, such an EPA
report would have been sent out to the 10 EPA regional
offices, from where it would have been sent to the
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states. Brashear said he assumed that was how the
dioxin report had been handled in 1980.
Since the discovery at the Diamond Alkali plant in
Newark of dioxin in concentrations up to 50,000 times
higher than the 1 part per billion safety level recom
mended by the federal Centers for Disease Control,
authorities have found dioxin in two more places in
New Jersey and one in Kansas, all sites listed in the
EPA report.
The Thompson-Hayward Chemical Co. plant in Kan
sas City, however, was tested because of the 1982 dioxin
problems in neighboring Missouri, not because of the
1980 list.
“Three years ago, there was not that demonstrated,
recognized hazard,” explained Jim Aiken, director of
environment for the Kansas Department of Health and
Environment.
John Mitchell, a Kansas state environmental scien
tist, added that in 1980, “There wasn’t a dioxin scare.
. . . They thought dioxin broke down in the soil.”
As a result of the latest dioxin discoveries, new tests
are underway or planned for 48 potential sites on the
list, according to the AP survey. Tests are under
consideration at an additional 21 listed sites.
The 1980 report is a 371-page study of dioxins,
substances formed as unwanted byproducts in the
making of organic chemicals and pesticides. One of
several hundred varieties of dioxin 2,3,7,8-TCDD —is
considered the world’s most toxic substance.
The EPA has found evidence that occupational
exposure to various forms of dioxin was associated
with adverse health effects ranging from headafches to
liver damage and deterioration of immune systems.
But there is no proof dioxin has killed any hliman being,
and the American Medical Association last week said
there’s no imminent danger to the public, contending
“hysterical malreporting” has made dioxins the target
of a “witch hunt.”,
Appendices to the EPA report listed “potential
industrial sites” where chemicals made or used could
create dioxins under certain conditions.
“Obviously the question is, why have we not checked
every one of these sites?” the EPA’s Brashear said.
“The answer *has to be that we have to establish
priorities here in everything we do. We’ve been looking
at dioxin sites but our chief priority is the 419 ‘super
fund’ sites. We had every intention of getting to all this,
and we still do.”
Robert Red ford
Therapy helps former
to communicate after
By CHRISTINE MURRAY
Collegian Staff Writer
Former Nittany Lion mascot Norm
Constantine, still fighting to over
come jnjuries sustained in a hit-and
run accident almost two years ago,
can now communicate with his fami
ly and friends.
Constantine, who suffered severe
head injuries when he was struck by a
hit-and-run driver on Oct. 17, 1981,
has been undergoing therapy at the
Moss Rehabilitation Hospital in Phil
adelphia.
• Constantine was the Nittany Lion
mascot from 1978 to 1980.
Lois Levy, public relations director
at the hospital, said Constantine is
playing an active part in his therapy
program and is communicating
through finger spelling, a form of
elementary sign language.
“Norm started signing a while ago,
but it took us awhile to realize what
he was doing,” Levy said.
Signing is a skill Constantine had
acquired when he worked with the
physically handicapped before the
accident occurred. He is currently
working with a communication spe
cialist to refine that skill, Levy said.
“We asked him the other day how
did he feel. He said, ‘I feel very good
today,’ ” Levy said.
Constantine suffered a brain injury
from the accident, which may be
affecting hiySpeech, Levy said.
The Constantine family has been
very supportive of Norm throughout
his recovery, Levy said.
“We see him every night,” Con
stantine’s father, Cy, said. “We are
very devoted.”
Constantine will probably be able to
attend his sister’s wedding in Novem
ber, Levy said. She added that Con
stantine'comes from such a tightly
knit family that he would not want to
miss the ..wedding no matter what
his condition,
Constantine’s father said, “It’s so Philadelphia,
good that people (at the University) Anyone wishing to send cards or
are thinking about him.” letters to Constantine should address
After graduating from the Univer- them to: Room 305, Moss Rehabilita
sity in 1980, Constantine worked as a tion Hospital, 12th and Tabor Road,
recreational therapist with the Unit- Philadelphia, Pa., 19141.
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