That's in contrast to one of the first things most people learn about cancer. It is not a single disease. Carcinomas, adenomas, sarcomas, lymphomas, leukemias arise from different tissues in different organs. But EPA's analysis of the human evidence depends on its discovery of a whole new class of chemical carcinogens that cause cancer at all sites. Such a remarkable reported discovery deserves more attention and investigation.
History shows that investigating a single proposed chemical-cancer relationship can take many years.
At the Dioxin 2000 meetings, J.T. Tumisto and his colleagues reported on relationships between body burdens of dioxin and the frequency of STS in 160 STS patients and 100 controls in Finland. I don't know what weight it will be given in EPA's considerations. Smoking and Other Risks Lung cancers are the major contributor to the total of human cancers associated with dioxin. Everyone knows of the importance of smoking to lung cancer. Moreover, in the last few years, EPA has warned about lung cancer as a result of exposures to radon, asbestos, and arsenic, and, don't forget, environmental tobacco smoke.