Dioxin resources page for citizens & journalists, designed for efficient understanding

by Eric F Coppolino | Feb 18, 2023

Note — This mailing is from Chiron Return, the nonprofit investigaive team that publishes Planet Waves FM, the Covid Chronology, a daily news feed and much else. — efc

This resource is intended for journalists and other people who want to efficiently develop a working understanding of the dioxin problem. It’s a thing like no other.

Even if you read this whole presentation, you will have a few pieces to assemble — though it will be much easier knowing the background. I am doing my best to keep it down to a dull roar, and I will note when one entry leads to other resources. If you are looking for something or have questions, please ask in the comments.

The whole dioxin issue leads back to two conclusions.

One, there is no safe level of exposure, so therefore, there is no acceptable level of contamination. Dioxin is a multigenerational genetic and hormonal toxin. Two, public and corporate authorities will deny the problem and engage the public and the press in a complicated game of dissembling the truth, outright deception (including lying in scientific papers and in court), avoiding any accountability, filing fake lawsuits, burning down people’s homes, and by any other means necessary.

Therefore, those who are engaging public authorities on these issues need the help of experienced players. The game cannot be learned from scratch in time to get a result. Experience is the only teacher — and time is of the essence.

Science, Politics, Corporate Interests — and People

This scenario is not merely about chemicals; it’s about the intersection of science, politics, corporate interests, and human nature. And the situation is always playing out where people, their homes, their families and their livelihoods are under siege. That is not a fair fight: people with little money who are under threat go up against $1000 an hour attorneys and bureaucrats staying in hotels with meal allowances, driving government cars, with nothing to lose.

I am providing this information to help level out the playing field. Please bookmark the web edition of this page, which you can find by clicking the podcast or the headline. I will be updating it and the discussion should be interesting.

This resource is provided by of Chiron Return, the nonprofit investigative team. We are sponsored by your paid subscriptions to this Substack and by direct donations. Every dollar counts. Thank you for your generosity. If you are a philanthropist who wants to support a crucial environmental project that is already getting solid results, please get in touch with me at efc@chironreturn.org. Thank you.

This was the scene at SUNY New Paltz at the first news conference, held Dec. 30, 1991, the day after a 1991 dioxin release on the campus. The man in the gray coat is Peter Haughton, who was the campus physician. It seems that he alone understands the gravity of the problem. Photo by Eric Coppolino / SLNS.

There is an Established Game

There exists an established game that takes place between the government and the public. This game as been played at Love Canal, Times Beach, the Five Rivers area, SUNY New Paltz, between vets and the Veterans Administration, and many other places. It’s the same everywhere; I know of no exceptions. Dioxin means deception.

The same playbook shows up over and over again: minimizing the dangers; testing irregularities including “losing” samples or results; testing for the wrong chemicals; propping up shills to say everything is safe; referring to or creating fraudulent studies; creating endless delays; and a few others you will come to recognize.

Then, sadly, in most instances, the public tends to jump on board and accepts reassurance pretend there is not a problem, as most people cannot wrap their minds around the nature of a substance measured in quadrillionths of a gram (femotograms).

While dioxin can be an acute poison, particularly to babies, fetuses, young children and animals, it is rarely so in adults. Rather, it is a hormonal toxin, an at least three-generation multigenerational toxin, and a cancer inducer and cancer promoter. All of these are related.

I can be reached via the comments below, by email at efc@chironreturn.org, and by phone at (845) 481-5616. That’s not a cell, so please don’t text.

A Few Essential Resources

East Palestine Train Wreck: It’s the Dioxin

This page includes an introduction by me, but is notable for two articles by science historian Peter Montague on the nature of the dioxin problem. He goes through several of the early incidents where the existence and toxicity of dioxin were established, and describes the scientific and political landscape in a few words.

Interview with Carol van Strum

Tough she never planned to be, Carol is the leading historian and document collector on dioxin and all related issues. She knows the history inside and out from memory.

Learning about Dioxin the Hard Way: Planet Waves FM from Feb. 17, 2023

In my newest program, I offer a from the ground upward history of the issue, including two interviews with historian, author and document collector Carol van Strum. I read from a document called the Kemner brief. Other important documents are in he notes for this program.

The Secret History of Chemicals: Earlier interview with Carol van Strum

In this extended interview, Carol tells about how her home and surrounding forest in Oregon were sprayed with Agent Orange in the 1970s, and how this spurred her into a lifetime of action. For an excellent biography of Carol van Strum, see this article.

Dioxin Critic Sued: Monsanto vs Peter Montague

Peter wrote about a document called the Sanjour Memo, which revealed that Monsanto had conducted and published multiple studies that manipulated the data to make dioxin seem safe.

See No Evil: The New York Times and Dioxin

One of the great investigative reports ever, Vicky Monks dismantles the New York Times’ fraudulent coverage of dioxin’s toxicity in this 1993 article originally published in American Journalism Review. I am working on a newer, cleaner presentation. This one is hosted on my Dioxin Dorms website.

The Industrial Bio-Test Labs Scandal: Peter von Stackelberg Interview

Peter tells the story of how be unraveled the most unnerving scientific scandal of the 20th century, involving the laboratories that decide that chemicals are safe. Peter is the guy in the top photo at the right.

How We Got Here: The History of PCBs

Dioxins are trace contaminants created as part of the manufacturing process of any product that involves chlorine, from plastics to paper and many others. Other chemicals are dioxin-like compounds because of the similarity of the molecules. Historically, these include a diversity of insecticides (DDT, Dursban and many others), “disinfectants,” chlorinated benzenes Teflon (C8), PCBs and many others. This will give you some background on how dioxins come to be. Related: tribute to Dr. Ward Stone, the former New York State wildlife pathologist.

Conspiracy of Silence: My history of PCBs

This takes the history of PCBs back to the beginning, and covers the dioxin angle, the fraudulent testing angle, and published in Sierra, summer 1994. The companion to this article is above, How We Got Here, by Peter Montague.

The Poison Papers: Toxins Document Resource

This is a document collection including my own files, those of Carol van Strum and Peter von Stackelberg. This is also at ToxicDocs.org, hosed by Columbia University. Chiron Return was a major contributor of documents and other resources to the project.

Resettling Love Canal Amidst Unsettling Questions

My first investigative feature, written and published in 1983, this article covers the dioxin problem at the Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York.

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