But last Saturday, hundreds of environmentalists, unencumbered by jazz or technical difficulties, heard the biologist's message loud and clear. Commoner gave the keynote address at the Second Citizens' Conference on Dioxin, which was held at Tegeler hall on the St. Louis University campus. The Environmental Protection Agency's draft reassessment on dioxin, due to be released this month, reinforces what Commoner and other scientists at the conference have warned for decades. Dioxin is a likely carcinogen, and is now suspected of increasing susceptibility to disease and of damaging the immune system and sexual and embryonic development, according to a summary of the EPA report leaked earlier this year. More alarming perhaps is scientific evidence that these ill effects are passed to future generations.
Any parent raising a child is intimately concerned about their ability to do it well.
Dioxin is a threat to that ability. Because of this, Commoner supports the move to ban chlorine-based chemicals that create dioxin as a byproduct. Chlorine is essential to at least a third and maybe half of the processes that the chemical industry now carries on. It means an enormous restructuring. But the scientist is optimistic that other affiliated corporate sectors will pressure the chemical industry because of their own potential financial liability.