What is dioxin, anyway, and why does it have such wild effects?
The term dioxin actually refers to a family of more than 70 isomers of highly toxic, man-made organic compounds—dioxins—that are byproducts of some industrial processes and waste incineration. Dioxins are fat-soluble, so they tend to accumulate in the tissues of the animals who encounter them, and it can take many years for the compounds to break down. Any person living in an industrialized country has dioxins in his or her body—we ingest them when we eat animal fats or animal-fat byproducts. It’s unclear how harmful these low doses could be. Some animals begin to show symptoms of poisoning when they’re given doses only two or three times the level of dioxins in the average person’s body. Research has shown that dioxins increase the risk of certain kinds of cancer but lower the risk of others.
