The exaggeration of Greenpeace Greenpeace is completely outdated about the carcinogenic effect of dioxins. Some toxic chemicals do have equal effects on different animals at nearly the same concentration. This is not the case for dioxins. Dioxins are extremely toxic for Guinea pigs, but a thousand times less toxic for other animals.
Humans seems to be much more resistent to the toxicological and carcinogenic properties of dioxins.
Since the accident in Seveso, Italy, where a chemical reactor overheated and a cloud of reaction products, including a few hundred grams of the most toxic dioxin, was emitted over the neighbourhood, this is for Greenpeace the symbol of what can go wrong in a chemical factory. Of course, this was a serious incident, and incidents of that kind should be avoided with all means possible. There was a lot of people affected by a skin disease, called chloracne, which all was cured in a few months to a few years. Also the ground of Seveso was affected in more or less serious ways. For this reason, the surroundings of the incident were categorised in three classes, the most polluted, the A-class had the highest dioxin content.