Domestic animals dioxin

In short, for most domestic animals in the United States, few will ever be exposed to contaminated soil without having been provided with ample feed. In general, only when they graze upon soil where the dioxin level exceeds 1-20 ppb might it pose a hazard to those persons who primarily eat their own meat products. For nearly all others, due to dilution with other meats from numerous sources, as well as the other factors which we have discussed, the risk will be de minimus. Due to the many factors that need to be considered, the setting of an acceptable soil level should be done on a site specific basis. 

Based on the observations of reproductive toxicity (including endocrine disruption) in wildlife and domestic animals, as well as ongoing concerns about reproductive dysgenesis in human populations and the observed effects of industrial accidents involving MIC and dioxins, there has been increasing interest in the effects of prenatal exposures of humans to suspected endocrine disrupters and other reproductive toxicants. However, when impaired reproductive function is discovered in adults, it is difficult to comment with complete certainty on the relative contributions of prenatal versus postnatal exposures to reproductive toxicants. There is a wide array of pesticides and other organic environmental... 

Overall, the accident was considered directly responsible for the deaths of about 3,300 small animals, and about a dozen domestic animals. Over the next two years, cleanup activities were conducted. Soil was excavated and removed from the contaminated zones, and some homes were destroyed due to contamination. Based on uptake of dioxin from soil and food, an additional 77,000 small animals and domestic cmimcds were killed over this time period to prevent them from spreading contamination to predators eating the small animals and humans eating the domestic animals. 

Perhaps the most renowned example is the extensively-used 2,4,5-T (2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid), or rather the 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo- -dioxin (TCDD) impurity which sometimes accompanies it. During massive use of the herbicide as a defoliant in the Vietnam war, TCDD was found almost by accident to be one of the most toxic synthetic substances ever tested. Soon, it was shown to be present in domestic 2,4,5-T as well as in the chemical warfare agents. Tests in laboratory animals demonstrated that some of the observed levels indeed were quite high enough to cause toxic effects (32). 

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