Such effects were attributed to chemicals released from the mill. In addition, we found that people in the area could have been exposed to contaminants not only by eating fish but also by using water from the Pigeon River to irrigate crops and water livestock. Thus, some of their sources of food may be contaminated with dioxins. Recent studies show that dioxin and other environmental chemicals can disrupt the hormonal system by mimicking or inhibiting estrogens in organisms. Estrogens and other hormones are chemical messengers that regulate various processes in the body.
Hormones act on parts of the body by sending chemical signals through receptors on or inside cells.
This action can be blocked by chemicals that mimic a hormone and attach to its receptors. Because hormones regulate growth and reproduction, it is believed that hormone-disrupting chemicals could interfere with these processes, possibly leading to reproductive and developmental problems in humans. Estrogens are known to play critical roles in the development of breast cancer. Interestingly, breast cancer incidences are higher in the two counties downstream of the paper mill than in surrounding counties. There is only about a 1 in 500 probability that the observed incidences of breast cancer in these two counties are due to random chance alone.