what dioxin is
Dioxin is the name of a family of chemical compounds that are unintentional byproducts of certain industrial, non-industrial and natural processes, usually involving combustion. Different dioxin compounds have different toxicities. Sometimes the term dioxin is also used to refer to TCDD, the most well studied and most toxic form of dioxin. The many different types of dioxin actually vary greatly in toxicity -- some of them 10,000 times less toxic than TCDD.