"No strong evidence" PCP damages genes

* No surprise this article was released the day after this event see {here}
     "Wood mill workers claim victory" dated 23rd June 2010

Thursday June 24, 2010 NZPA

Health officials say researchers may look at developing a way to assess the inter-generational impacts of pentachlorophenol (PCP) on the children and grandchildren of timber workers exposed to the preservative.

But the Health Ministry's environmental health protection manager Sally Gilbert has already said there is not sufficient justification for funding serum dioxin tests or other tests to determine damage to DNA.*1

She said yesterday blood tests for dioxin only showed a person had been exposed, and there was "no strong evidence" to suggest that PCP caused genetic damage.*2 

A consultant who has worked closely with the ministry and a timber workers' lobby, Matt Allen of Allen and Clarke, said that issues such as whether geneticists will work with epidemiologists and toxicologists on a study of effect on workers' children and grandchildren will have to be decided by scientists who designed the study - if there was one.*3

He expected the consideration of such a study and who took part would be a parallel process alongside the set up of a health support service to provide workers exposed to the chemical with free annual health checks. Plans for the checks, information, and advice were announced to 200 workers at Whakatane yesterday.

Sawmill workers who were exposed to the chemical during the 30 years it was commonly used to stop fungal sapstain in timber have complained that family members suffered a high rate of birth defects such as cleft palates, extra toes, cognitive problems, club feet and, in one case, a baby born with its internal organs outside its body.

The ministry said yesterday that if a "robust" research methodology could be found for impacts of PCP on descendants of sawmill workers "a proposal for funding could then be advanced via the usual research funding processes".

In 2001 the government gave nuclear test veterans $100,000 which they used to fund an intensive chromosomal study at Massey University, where Professor Al Rowland used gene analysis techniques to show that New Zealand sailors suffered genetic damage from their exposure to radiation during nuclear tests 50 years earlier in the Pacific.

Rowland then used a similar approach to show increased rates of genetic damage in Vietnam War veterans exposed to dioxins and their breakdown products, by investigating damage to their chromosomes.

Green Party spokeswoman Catherine Delahunty said the health care package must provide funding for a investigation of inter-generational effects.

The sawmill workers had been exposed to high levels of dioxin, the same as "Agent Orange" victims among Vietnam veterans, and "they should at least get the same level of support".*4

About 200 workers are known to have developed chronic illnesses after inhaling dioxins from PCP used between the 1950s and late 1980s.

One study showed some workers had high rates of cancer, diabetes, kidney, liver and heart failure. There was a 40% increase in the risk of cancer in sawmill workers exposed to PCP compared with those who were not, and they also had a 200% to 300% increase in deaths from chronic non-cancerous respiratory disease.

The ministry said PCP was associated with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and soft tissue sarcoma but dioxins appeared to act more as a cancer promoter than to actually trigger cancer.*1/2

Original Source

THE TRUTH from a REAL EXPERT!


Dr Linda Birnbaum on April 19, 2004. At the time she was Director of the US Environmental Protection Agency's Environment Toxicology Division. In 2010 she became Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

* Blog opinion: 

*1 The NZ Government truly do not want to know the truth that's why they defer to advise from IOM instead of the organisations the really do know and say exactly what effects these dioxins have on humans.  

*2 Generational effects is also documented well with these qualified reference points unlike IOM, only the blind and fool would say otherwise. 

*3 Government Spin Doctors

*4 The Green Party have always said a lot yet to this day delivered no substantial result to sufferes of dioxin exspo

** 'This is all about' ** 

"HIP POCKET VISION" 

'affordability of the TRUTH'

Wood mill workers claim victory

*Maybe Moral Only
Wednesday June 23, 2010

play video news here

Former Whakatane wood mill workers have won a hard fought victory in their battle to get health support after years of exposure to poisons.

The workers claim they have suffered serious health problems from working with carcinogenic timber treatment chemicals, including the timber preservative PCP.

The Ministry of Health told a meeting of 200 workers that it is setting up a special support service for the ex-mill hands which will include free health checks and counselling.

They were also told they will be given access to health promotions to reduce risks, such as cancer, and mental health services.

Mala Palai

Many of the men still suffering consider it just a start, after having their complaints ignored for years, with former mill worker, Mala Palai, saying real change will be more difficult to come by.

"I'm still fighting, that's why I'm happy to come along and listen to this. (It) may be something new, but I can't see any change," he says.

The cost of the health support work will depend on how many people take it up, but consultants have estimated between $400,000-$1.3 million over two years.

A lobby group, Sawmill Workers Against Poisons (SWAP), has been fighting for help for nearly 30 years, and workers have complained of high rates of cancer, diabetes, and kidney, liver and heart failure.

Around 200 workers at the Whakatane wood mill developed chronic illnesses and psychological problems after inhaling dioxins from the anti-fungal timber treatment PCP between the 1950s and 1980s.

They were so unaware of the dangers they often used log splinters as toothpicks and sawdust from the mill in their fish smokers and gardens.

Research from Massey University showed higher levels of cancer and lung disease than normal in the former workers, and according to researcher David McLean, the increase was significant.

"We did find that they had more cancer - they had something like 50% more cancer than you'd expect from a population of that size and age," he says.

Another study found a 40% increase in the risk of cancer in sawmill workers exposed to PCP compared with those who were not, and a 200% to 300% increase in deaths from chronic non-cancerous respiratory disease in PCP-exposed workers.

The Ministry says it does not know much about the long-term health effects associated with exposure to PCP*1 , but it is a possible human carcinogen associated with non-hodgkin's lymphoma and soft tissue sarcoma.

Dioxins appear to act more as a cancer promoter than as a cancer initiator, and do not appear to be directly toxic to genes.

About 10% of workers who had relatively high levels of dioxin in their blood worked in the industry for 10 years or more, or did high-risk jobs such as cleaning out PCP containers.

The highest dioxin level recorded in the 2007 study was in a former worker who had the equivalent of 90.2 parts per trillion (ppt) - suggesting it would have been as high as 360-720ppt 20 years earlier - and such workers are three times more likely to have respiratory disease.

People with more PCP exposure also reported increased prevalence of a number of other health conditions, including eczema, thyroid disorders, unexplained persistent fevers, recurrent nausea and diarrhoea, heart palpitations and low libido.

An initial compensation package offer was turned down by workers this year, and there was no announcement of compensation today.

People who worked for at least a year in a sawmill where PCP was used and came into contact with wet PCP will get the health support, but no faster access to treatment than other New Zealander's with the same needs.

The report does not support former sawmill workers getting faster access to treatment services than other New Zealander's who might have the same needs.

The Ministry said there was insufficient evidence to suggest that the workers' children or grandchildren will suffer health effects*2 , but research will now be carried out to determine the validity of the claim.

Original Source

* Blog opinion: 

*1 The NZ Government truly do not want to know the truth that's why they defer to advise from IOM instead of the organisations the really do know and say exactly what effects these dioxins have on humans.  

*2 Generational effects is also documented well with these qualified reference points unlike IOM, only the blind and fool would say otherwise. 

** 'This is all about' ** 

"HIP POCKET VISION" 

'affordability of the TRUTH'