The State Capital is only five kilometers away and Ohio State University is ten kilometers away. As a consequence of these dioxin emissions, dozens of people in the Columbus area die of cancer every year this incinerator is in operation. In fact the area just down the prevailing wind from the incinerator has the highest cancer rate in Franklin County. Cancer is not the only problem. Many more people are sickened or otherwise affected by the many other effects of dioxin.
Pregnant women are particularly susceptible.
Reproductive and birth abnormalities can be caused by exposure to minute quantities of dioxin over a very short time. Recent experiments have shown that male rats are demasculinized and feminized when the mother is fed a single dose of dioxin, too small to do her any harm, on the fiftieth day of pregnancy. The sexual changes in the young males lasts into adulthood. Other reproductive abnormalities linked to dioxin include learning disabilities and aggressive or passive behavior. Dioxin can also affect the immune system which protects the body from attack by many other diseases.