EU researchers uncover the long-term effects of exposure to dioxin
Human exposure to dioxin results most commonly in the severe skin condition chloracne, as well as liver damage and a number of other chronic diseases, a study funded by the EU's Environment and Climate research programme now reported in a paper in the journal 'Environmental research' reveals. In their paper, the researchers, from four European countries, produce evidence of the multiple, long term effects on human health that exposure to dioxin results in. They examined 159 workers in the Austrian chemical industry who were exposed to dioxin while carrying out their work more than 20 years ago. Because dioxins have extremely long half-lives (decay rates), they can be detected in blood fats years after exposure. This is bad news for the individual concerned, yet it also means that scientists can calculate just what the long-term effects of exposure to dioxin at different levels are. The Austrian chemical workers were exposed to dioxins as they produced herbicides between 1963 and 1973. Of the survivors, 32% reported the persistence of chloracne to the researchers, and neurological symptoms such as sleep disturbance, headaches and neuralgia were also frequently reported. In 1996, scientists analysed mortality and morbidity statistics for the same group of chemical workers, finding that all had experienced chloracne. Using health insurance data, they also saw that 30 of the group had died, while others had taken 'significant' time off work for sickness, and treatment for neurological, gastrointestinal, liver and skin diseases. The researchers also noticed that the half-life of dioxin - which is usually seven years in the human body - actually increases some years after contamination, and that individuals, exposed to dioxin in the past and who experienced rapid weight loss had increased levels of dioxin in their blood - because of its release from fatty deposits. For this reason, the scientists warn that anyone who knows they have been exposed to dioxin should avoid rapid weight loss.