Scientist Join Efforts to Reduce Dioxin Peril

by Jennifer Adibi

While chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are the red flag waved by environmentalists in the 1990s, dioxin contamination is a time bomb waiting to explode in the 21st century. Dioxins are highly toxic by-products of the chemical and paper-bleaching industries and can also be released during the incineration of municipal and toxic wastes. They can cause cancer, immune system suppression and damage to the nervous and reproductive systems. Dioxins can be transported long distances by air, and studies have shown that North American dioxin emissions are being deposited in Europe and vice versa. The highest levels of dioxin are found in the fat of polar bears and in the breast milk of northern tribes, thousands of miles from industrial sources. Dioxins have reached every end of the planet and are wreaking havoc on human health and the ecosystem worldwide. Only through international cooperation can the sources be identified and eliminated.

The US and Russia are the leading sources of dioxin, but Russia is the only country in the industrialized world that has not implemented a government plan to reduce dioxin contamination. To begin developing a strategy, a delegation of North American and Russian scientists came together in Moscow last October to exchange strategies on how to reduce dioxin levels in the environment and human beings. The North American delegation included six leaders in scientific research, policy making and grassroots organizing. After nine days of non-stop meetings and site visits in Moscow and Ufa, the groundwork was laid for cooperation and increased communication between our countries on this pivotal public health and environmental safety issue.

The delegation was led by Dr. Linda Birnbaum, the lead scientist of the EPA's dioxin program, and Dr. Arnold Schecter of SUNY-Binghamton, who was the first to travel to the former Soviet Union beginning in 1989 to collect and analyze dioxin samples from workers and Baikal seals.

The US delegation was funded by the EcoBridge Environmental Program of CEC International Partners, a nonprofit organization in New York. CEC initiated US-Russian cooperation on the safe disposal of chemical weapons in 1995, and more recently on dioxins, as a way to bridge gaps in science, policy, activism and industry that obstruct US-Russian environmental cooperation.

The Russian participants paid their own way to attend the meetings in Moscow and Ufa, one of the many signs of the lack of state support for science. As Sergei Yufit, the Russian project director, stated in his opening comments, the chilly temperature in the meeting room served as a metaphor for the poverty and economic paralysis Russian scientists are experiencing in all fields. The Russian Academy of Sciences is hardly making salary payments to the Institute's employees, let alone paying the heating bill. American scientists were surprised and dismayed by the conditions in which their colleagues are working.

Our discussions revealed that knowledge of dioxins in Russian scientific, policy and environmental circles is minimal for a number of reasons. Until 1989, the word dioxin was censored from Russian dictionaries because it related to military production. The topic has been declassified, but there has been no funding from the federal government to set up dioxin research laboratories, which cost several million dollars each. Because of closed communication channels and economic obstacles, Russian scientists have not been able to attend international conferences or even read Western scientific journals.

A series of accidents at Ufa Khimprom Chemical Factory, beginning in the early '60s, first alerted the Russian public to the dangers of dioxins. For over 45 years Ufa Khimprom has been producing various chlorinated chemicals, ranging from household bleach to pesticides. From 1965-67, they produced a pesticide that resulted in several hundred workers being exposed to dioxin. Khimprom has taken an active role in investigating the health of their workers and the longterm impact of dioxin. Their research shows an increase in high blood pressure, immune system dysfunction (both immune suppression and an increase in autoimmune disease), disruption of lipid metabolism, gastrointestinal problems, premature aging and an increase in cancer. An alteration in the normal sex ratio of workers' children, with more females than males being born, indicates disruption to the endocrine system.

The government of the Bashkortostan Republic, where Khimprom is located, has created a regional program to analyze and remediate the dioxin problem. It is the only such regional program in the former Soviet Union, receiving more funding than the dioxin program for the entire Russian Federation. In Ufa, they have set up two dioxin laboratories, and funded medical research, medical treatment for the workers, and water purification technology to eliminate dioxin from drinking water. However, local environmentalists contend that the program fails to include the public. Since 1989, when Khimprom was forced to close down production of a highly toxic pesticide because of citizen protests, the public has not been informed of the contamination problems around Khimprom and other factories.

The list of other dioxin hot spots in Russia includes Chapaevsk in Samara Oblast, where there has been extensive chemical production, ranging from chemical weapons to herbicides and chlorine. Based on preliminary studies, it seems that there is extremely high dioxin contamination in the soil, as well as a large number of workers affected by a severe skin condition, chloracne, which results from dioxin exposure.

Arkhangelsk, Irkutsk and the Baikal Region are also contaminated by dioxin generated from paper and pulp mills. The lower Volga Region, the Altai, Novosibirsk, Dzerzhinsk and other areas where chemical industries are located are also areas with a potentially high level of dioxin contamination. Russian and American project participants will travel to these regions in 1997 to begin assessing the problem and formulating strategy.

In the US, the number one source of dioxin is incineration of municipal and industrial wastes. To date, incineration has not yet been employed as a method of waste disposal in Russia on the same scale as in the US. Several cities, including Moscow, are now under extreme pressure to grant construction permits for incinerators. Incineration is seen as a viable means to dispose of the increasing volume of solid waste. Opponents to incineration hope that public education on the dangers of dioxin and incineration will lead to responsible decision making and public involvement in waste management strategies for Russian municipalities.

The CEC meetings in October supplied both sides with a basic understanding of the dioxin problems in each other's countries. The US delegation had a stronger interest in dioxin-related health issues, but lacked expertise in dioxin source reduction. In the future, more emphasis will be placed on understanding the sources of dioxin that exist in Russia and methods for eliminating them. This will require consultation with specialists in non-chlorine technologies, pollution prevention, economics and environmental law. It was decided to make every effort to include representatives of the chemical industry in project activities and future meetings.

As follow-up to the October meetings, requests have been sent to the Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission to address dioxin by putting forth a directive for US-Russian cooperation on this issue. Tatyana Markova of the Baikal Environmental Wave is currently producing a fact-pack in Russian on dioxin, which will be distributed to citizens and journalists as part of a public education campaign. Paolo Toniolo, another delegation member, has generated support from the International Agency on Research on Cancer for a fellowship for an epidemiologist from Ufa to analyze data on exposed workers. CEC is in the process of organizing delegations of Russians to attend dioxin conferences in 1997.

This meeting constituted a first attempt to bring scientists, environmentalists and policy-makers under the banner of one project to exchange information and formulate solutions to a problem like dioxin. All participants experienced the difficulty in finding a common language among people with such diverse backgrounds and objectives. American scientists went to Russia seeking new populations to study and left with a larger mission of providing training resources for their Russian counterparts, helping to publish their articles in scientific journals, and bringing them into the international scientific arena. Russian participants were looking to the American partners as sources of funding, but realized that funding will only come when both sides prove their ability to work together and produce viable results. Everyone recognized that both scientists and environmentalists are important players in formulating long-term solutions and that sooner or later they must put their heads and limited resources together.

Jennifer Adibi is director of CEC International Partners' environmental programs.

CEC International Partners, 12 W. 31st Street, 4th floor, New York, NY 10001; phone: (212) 643-1985; e-mail: cecny@igc.apc.org