3/15 Groups Launch Campaign to Eliminate Dioxions

[the.greenbase@green2.greenpeace.org]

----------
Original-TO:      World Press (Green2:Green2:Gnl:INET)
----------
                   ************************
                   GREENPEACE PRESS RELEASE
                   ************************
 
 
GROUPS GATHER IN BATON ROUGE TO LAUNCH NATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO

ELIMINATE DIOXIN:
Strategy to focus on achieving a chemical-free society.
 
Baton Rouge, LA, March 15, 1996--Over 400 people from 70
local, regional, national, and international groups will meet
a the Third Citizens' Conference on Dioxin in Baton Rouge on
March 15-17 to strategize and launch a nation-wide campaign to
eliminate dioxin in our food, bodies and environment.
 
The working conference comes on the heels of the newly
released book, "Our Stolen Future," by Dr. Theo Colburn with a
foreword by Vice President Al Gore. "Our Stolen Future,"
suggests that everyday synthetic chemicals could be doing
serious damage to health and the environment. The groups
gathering for the Third Citizens' Conference on Dioxin
understand that Dr. Colburn's implications are more than mere
suggestions but fact, and are organizing to take action now.
 
"Theo Colborn's documentation of the ominous effects of toxic
hormones in wildlife and humans may ultimately be more
significant that Rachel Carson's historic book,  Silent
Spring'," said Rick Hind of Greenpeace. "Only if we begin
action today will we be able to grant other children the
simple right that Theo's book offers...a right to exist
chemical free."
 
New studies have linked dioxin to declining sperm counts,
rising rates of endometriosis and other illnesses. The
conference message, "Time for Action," points to the specific
campaigns to be created to halt incineration and phase out
chlorine-based compounds used in paper manufacturing, dry
cleaning and plastics.   Invited speakers will trace the
international dioxin crisis to the abuse of corporate power,
the spread of environmental racism and the erosion of
democratic systems. Plenary panels will address the necessity
of developing a global framework for eliminating dioxin
sources, achieving Environmental Justice for all and working
with labor to ensure a just transition to dioxin-free 
(ie. chlorine-free) future.
 
"If we want to get dioxin out of our bodies and our food we
have to get chlorine out of industry," said Dr. Paul Connett a
professor of chemistry at St. Lawrence University in New York,
and co-founder of the First Citizens' Conference on Dioxin.  
Dioxin is just one of the many by-products of the industrial
use of chlorine. Infamous chlorine industry products include
DDT, Agent Orange, PCB's and CFC's. The latest scientific
evidence suggests that there is no safe level of exposure to
dioxin. In September 1994, the EPA confirmed in its ongoing
Dioxin Reassessment that:
 
* Dioxin's non-cancer effects such as disruption of the
immune, endocriney to justify taking immediate action, which
is what the conference is all about."
 
The Chlorine Chemistry Council has repeatedly called for
"sound science" and definitive proof before any action can be
taken on hormone disrupting chemicals. In the meantime, study
after study continues to link dioxin and other industry by-
products to a range of illnesses in both humans and wildlife.
 
"The Chlorine Chemistry Council in particular has promoted a
kind of  cigarette science' to delay the inevitable actions
necessary to eliminate dioxin," said Rick Hind of Greenpeace.
"The danger is a delay will ensure a crisis-style
restructuring of the industry rather than a transition plan
that takes into account the needs of the workers and impacted
communities."
 
Featured speakers aExecutive Director of Citizens
Clearinghouse on Hazardous utive Director of the Indigenous

Environmental Network; Pe0's; John Stauber,
editor of PR watch, and co-author of "Trly Wright, Executive
Director of the Deep South Center 
Featured speakers aExecutive Director of Citizens
Clearinghouse on Hazardous utive Director of the Indigenous
Environmental
Network; Pe0's; John Stauber,
editor of PR watch, and co-author of "Trly Wright, Executive
Director of the Deep South Center on
 
ENDS
 
Contacts: 
Mary Lee Orr, Louisiana Environmental Action Network, 
(504) 928-1315
Charlotte Brody, Citizens Clearing House for Hazardous
Wastes, (703) 237-2249
Paula Welch, Greenpeace Media, via pager (800) 917-7661
Rick Hind, Greenpeace Toxics Campaign, (202) 319-2505
Florence Robinson, North Baton Rouge Environmental
Association, (504) 771-5210
Dr. Paul and Ellen Connett, Work on Waste USA
(315) 379-9200
 
----------