Autumn is slipping away from the north woods and I’ve been out camping again. Late at night, lying very still in my sleeping bag, I listen to the night sounds, raccoons rustling the dry leaves as they investigate the campsite, the clicking of bare twigs as the wind moves through the trees, the snort and stamp of the deer as they pick up human scent on the shifting wind.
I lie there and listen and it’s no surprise that all those horror stories come to mind. It’s dark and unfamiliar out there, almost anything can happen. Of course, part of the fun of a horror story – or horror movie – is that it might happen to you. The more realistic the setting, the scarier the story.
When I think about the places where real life and horror stories overlap, I begin thinking about dioxin. If Stephen King wanted to invent a chemical killer, he’d be hard pressed to invent something scarier than what we know to be true about dioxin.
First, dioxin does not occur in nature, it’s a man-made chemical, even if no particular man – or woman – wants to make it. Dioxin is the unwanted byproduct of any number of industrial processes from the production of vinyl plastic to pulp and papermaking, from incineration to burning diesel fuel. It would be bad enough if all this unwanted dioxin landed in heap on some factory floor, but it doesn’t. Dioxin from industrial sources is released into air and water; it settles into ash from incinerators and sludge from treatment ponds.
Like a good horror story monster, once we’ve made dioxin, we can’t get rid of it. Because dioxin is not naturally produced, nature has no systems for breaking it down, so once we make dioxin, it stays in the environment – and every day we make more. Once dioxin is in the environment, like a mad killer on the loose, it’s hard to capture. Dioxin released into the air has been shown to travel thousands of miles before settling to earth. Dioxin does not dissolve in water, either, so dioxin in water keeps moving through the environment, and since we keep making more dioxin, it concentrates to levels thousands of times higher than it was on release. Dioxin does, however, dissolve in fat, so when it hits fatty tissue, it stays there. As mammals at the top of the food chain, humans receive huge doses of dioxin in our diets.
Worse still, dioxin may be the most deadly chemical ever produced. A piece of dioxin the size of my thumb would be enough to give cancer to every person on earth. And dioxin has not only been linked to cancer, but it has been shown to magnify the cancer-causing effects of other pollutants. But cancer is only one of dioxin’s deadly weapons. Dioxin interferes with our bodies’ hormonal systems. It has been linked to birth defects, developmental disabilities and, if the body burden is high enough, it may prevent people from having children at all. The most frightening thing about dioxin for parents is that both men and women pass dioxin from our bodies to our unborn children. In fact, the highest dose of dioxin a person receives comes across the placenta, in the womb. The second-highest dose comes in breast milk. Our children are paying for the folly of the Industrial Age with their health.
Horror stories – at least good ones – are fables, teaching stories. In an oral tradition, they serve as a warning and a means for passing wisdom from one generation to the next. The toxic tragedy of dioxin in our environment is an all-too-true horror story, but what we’re passing to the next generation is by no means wisdom.
Horror Stories
Autumn is slipping away from the north woods and I’ve been out camping again. Late at night, lying very still in my sleeping bag, I listen to the night sounds, raccoons rustling the dry leaves as they investigate the campsite, the clicking of bare twigs as the wind moves through the trees, the snort and stamp of the deer as they pick up human scent on the shifting wind.
I lie there and listen and it’s no surprise that all those horror stories come to mind. It’s dark and unfamiliar out there, almost anything can happen. Of course, part of the fun of a horror story – or horror movie – is that it might happen to you. The more realistic the setting, the scarier the story.
When I think about the places where real life and horror stories overlap, I begin thinking about dioxin. If Stephen King wanted to invent a chemical killer, he’d be hard pressed to invent something scarier than what we know to be true about dioxin.
First, dioxin does not occur in nature, it’s a man-made chemical, even if no particular man – or woman – wants to make it. Dioxin is the unwanted byproduct of any number of industrial processes from the production of vinyl plastic to pulp and papermaking, from incineration to burning diesel fuel. It would be bad enough if all this unwanted dioxin landed in heap on some factory floor, but it doesn’t. Dioxin from industrial sources is released into air and water; it settles into ash from incinerators and sludge from treatment ponds.
Like a good horror story monster, once we’ve made dioxin, we can’t get rid of it. Because dioxin is not naturally produced, nature has no systems for breaking it down, so once we make dioxin, it stays in the environment – and every day we make more. Once dioxin is in the environment, like a mad killer on the loose, it’s hard to capture. Dioxin released into the air has been shown to travel thousands of miles before settling to earth. Dioxin does not dissolve in water, either, so dioxin in water keeps moving through the environment, and since we keep making more dioxin, it concentrates to levels thousands of times higher than it was on release. Dioxin does, however, dissolve in fat, so when it hits fatty tissue, it stays there. As mammals at the top of the food chain, humans receive huge doses of dioxin in our diets.
Worse still, dioxin may be the most deadly chemical ever produced. A piece of dioxin the size of my thumb would be enough to give cancer to every person on earth. And dioxin has not only been linked to cancer, but it has been shown to magnify the cancer-causing effects of other pollutants. But cancer is only one of dioxin’s deadly weapons. Dioxin interferes with our bodies’ hormonal systems. It has been linked to birth defects, developmental disabilities and, if the body burden is high enough, it may prevent people from having children at all. The most frightening thing about dioxin for parents is that both men and women pass dioxin from our bodies to our unborn children. In fact, the highest dose of dioxin a person receives comes across the placenta, in the womb. The second-highest dose comes in breast milk. Our children are paying for the folly of the Industrial Age with their health.
Horror stories – at least good ones – are fables, teaching stories. In an oral tradition, they serve as a warning and a means for passing wisdom from one generation to the next. The toxic tragedy of dioxin in our environment is an all-too-true horror story, but what we’re passing to the next generation is by no means wisdom.