EPA Official Forced to Resign For Defending Public Health Against Dow's Dioxin

The Chicago Tribune reports on the resignation of Mary Gade. Gade was forced to resign because she did her job and tried to get Dow to live up to its obligation to clean up the Tittabawassee and Saginaw rivers. Truthout link that I hope will not go away

Tittabawassee River Watch continues to do excellent work on the Dow Dioxin issue. Some links from them:


Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D Rhode Island) will be leading an oversight hearing into the politicization of the EPA and the circumstances surrounding Gade’s dismissal next Wednesday.

Youtube video of his C-Span 2 speech.



Additional information can be found at
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/02/epa-politicization-gonzo/ .

The UM Dioxin study provided some interesting data in response to a question at a DEQ community meeting. The data indicates that 10% of residential properties in the Tittabawassee flood plain have soil with dioxin concentrations over 1000 ppt, most of them with multiple samples. Further, 35% of flood plain sits have soil with dioxin levels over 90 ppt, again most with multiple samples.

In the document, the UM scientists admit

garden soil 2378-TCDD concentration was statistically significantly associated with serum 2378-TCDD

The context for this admission is that the UM scientists continue to attempt to downplay the link between soil dioxin and serum dioxin, and to imply that the dioxin contamination is not a problem. This is not surprising, given that their study was funded by Dow, although it is disappointing that the UM crew prefers to sell their reputation to Dow rather than serve the public.