DIOXIN INQUIRY

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32846, 21 February 1972, Page 19

DIOXIN INQUIRY

Information sought Any one with relevant in- • formation about the possible; effects on health of the chemical, 2,4,5-T should send it i to the recently-established [ Scientific Board of Investigation, care of the Health' Department, said Dr W. M. i Sare, of Te Awamutu, in a, letter to "The Press” last! week. Dr Sare was co-author of a recent letter in the “New Zealand Medical Journal” drawing attention to the possible link between the use of the chemical and the malformation of unborn babies. “As pointed out in the letter in the ‘Medical Journal’ the amount of impurity (dioxin) in the 2,4,5-T thought to be possibly sufficient to I harm an unborn baby is eight-millionths of a gram” said Dr Sare. A single particle of white; sugar weighed 120-millionths; of a gram, or 15 times as much, he said. i “It should be realised that lit is not the amount of dioxin consumed in one day of drinking contaminated water that could perhaps be harmful. FIRST 13 WEEKS “The suspicion is that the total amount of dioxin that enters a pregnant woman’s blood by drinking such water, inhaling the vapour of any aerial spray, or absorbing it through the skin, over the whole of the first 13 weeks of pregnancy does the damage,” he said. “It is during this time that the baby is formed (or deformed). "Animal experiments show that the offspring can be affected in many ways, and that the degree of deformity may vary from the very minimum to the very maximum,” said Dr Sare.