WEBVTT - What  is dioxin?

0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:03.440
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works dot com

0:00:03.640 --> 0:00:07.800
<v Speaker 1>where smart Happens. I am Marshall Brain with today's question,

0:00:08.320 --> 0:00:11.720
<v Speaker 1>what is dioxin and why is it bad for you?

0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:15.760
<v Speaker 1>Dioxin is an organic chemical that consists of a pair

0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:19.880
<v Speaker 1>of benzene rings, two oxygen atoms, and four chlorine atoms.

0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:23.200
<v Speaker 1>The chemical d DT is similar, so d d T

0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:27.400
<v Speaker 1>and di ox and share several characteristics. First, both d

0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:31.520
<v Speaker 1>d T and di ox and are toxic and small quantities. Second,

0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:34.760
<v Speaker 1>neither of them degrades in the environment, both of them

0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:39.320
<v Speaker 1>exists for an indefinite period of time, and third, both

0:00:39.400 --> 0:00:42.880
<v Speaker 1>dissolve and accumulate in fat. You may recall that d

0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:46.360
<v Speaker 1>d T, which was sprayed liberally starting in the nineteen

0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:50.879
<v Speaker 1>forties to control agricultural insects and mosquitoes, was banned in

0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:53.920
<v Speaker 1>the nineteen sixties because it accumulated in the fat of

0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:58.639
<v Speaker 1>animals and destroyed their ability to reproduce. Dioxin suffers from

0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:03.080
<v Speaker 1>the same problem. Dioxin enters the environment in several different ways,

0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:07.200
<v Speaker 1>for example, through the manufacture of certain herbicides, through the

0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:11.560
<v Speaker 1>manufacture of bleach paper, and through the burning of PVC plastics.

0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:15.640
<v Speaker 1>The toxicity of dioxin is something that the scientific community

0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:19.640
<v Speaker 1>doesn't seem to agree upon. Dioxin became notorious in the

0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:24.040
<v Speaker 1>nineteen eighties because of agent orange and several dioxin dumps

0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:27.399
<v Speaker 1>like love Canal discovered in the United States. You will

0:01:27.440 --> 0:01:30.960
<v Speaker 1>see many, many pages on the web that describe dioxin

0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:34.400
<v Speaker 1>as the most toxic substance on the planet. Then you'll

0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:37.920
<v Speaker 1>see other references like this one. In the Encyclopedia Britannica.

0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:42.959
<v Speaker 1>Toxicologists mistakenly concluded from studies on lab animals that die

0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:46.920
<v Speaker 1>oxen was one of the most toxic of all manmade substances.

0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:52.840
<v Speaker 1>Subsequent research, however, discounted most of these inferences. Nonetheless, it's

0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:56.560
<v Speaker 1>certain that dioxin is not good, does persist in the

0:01:56.680 --> 0:02:00.400
<v Speaker 1>environment and accumulates in the fat like d DT For

0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:05.200
<v Speaker 1>certain animals, dioxide is an acutely toxic substance. Do you

0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:08.639
<v Speaker 1>have any ideas or suggestions for this podcast? If so,

0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:11.480
<v Speaker 1>please send me an email at podcast at how stuff

0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:14.240
<v Speaker 1>works dot com. For more on this and thousands of

0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:18.840
<v Speaker 1>other topics, go to how stuff works dot com.