Decades of Dioxin: Limelight on a Molecule

Rating:
Summary: Science Matters! An Eye Opener in the Quest for Truth
Review: As the title implies, Dr. Warren B. Crummett spent decades of his career as an honored analytical chemist working with and studying dioxin in its various forms. In particular, Dr. Crummett focuses on the dioxin known as 2-3-7-8 tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, or 2-3-7-8-TCDD. This is the type of dioxin that has accounted for so much media hysteria over the past twenty years; yet, as Dr. Crummett ably shows, it is only a molecule, not a monster - and perhaps not a very scary one at that.

Decades of Dioxin traces Dr. Crummett's life and career, starting with his boyhood in rural West Virginia. The chapters are short and stand-alone; indeed, one of the charms of the book is that readers may read it in short chapters or longer installments. The explanations, insights, photos, graphics, quotes, and anecdotes all shed light on the author's life and the dioxin molecule, and it's fascinating reading.

The quotations that help introduce each chapter are often humorous, always apt, as this one by Will Rogers: "I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts."

Warren Crummett joined the Dow Chemical Company in 1950, and was assigned to work under Dr. Vernon Stenger, who was regarded by some as the best industrial analytical chemist in the world. Dioxins came to light in the 1960s, and Dr. Crummett traces the events of several industrial accidents in which dioxins were released, and nothing more than a severe case of acne was ever detected. He doesn't shy away from the tragedy of Seveso, Italy, in which 26 women underwent abortions after a dioxin release; studies of the fetuses showed they were normal, even at the chromosomal level.

Subsequent chapters deal with the challenge of identifying smaller and smaller amounts of trace chemicals, such as dioxins. Several of these chapters warrant special attention for the intriguing view they offer into the world of the analytical chemist. Dr. Crummett puts these unimaginably small amounts into layman's terms: one part per trillion, for example, is a six-inch leap on a journey to the sun, whereas one part per quintillion is one pinhead on an area the size of Earth's surface.

Dr. Crummett also details the frustration of watching sound scientific knowledge disappear under a media onslaught of self-proclaimed "experts" with scant training in chemistry. He presents a reasoned argument against the extremely low levels of allowable dioxin as set by the government, given that dioxin has not been proven to cause anything more serious than a case of acne in some of the people who are directly exposed to it. Those who recall the "saccharine scare" of the 1970s will no doubt see his point.

The book also offers an interesting insight into the corporate world. The Dow Chemical Company was an acknowledged leader in detection of very low levels of trace chemicals, but Dr. Crummett doesn't shy away from citing incidents of company shortcomings during his tenure in their labs. Lest readers think this book is nothing more than pro-Dow propaganda, Dr. Crummett spends quite a bit of time acknowledging leading scientists in the field, including those working for regulatory agencies such as the U. S. Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Dr. Crummett wrote this book in an attempt to report the facts about a topic that creates a knee-jerk fear reaction in most people, thanks in large part to the government and the media. The author's enthusiasm for finding, understanding and communicating the raw scientific facts, is relentless. His adventurous outlook will be refreshing to any person considering a career in science. This quest for the truth is indeed the foundation of this book, as well as the life story of its author. It's the defining characteristic of a successful scientist.

Decades of Dioxin should be required reading for all environmentalists, lawyers, professors, law makers, public policy makers, regulators and others who deal with any aspect of dioxin and other toxins. The book's facts, truths and explanations equip the reader with a solid grasp and outlook on handling public policy safety concerns.

The tragedy of this book is its lack of sales and distribution. The book's facts, insights and practical information appear to be obscured by a growing culture of distrust of industrial capitalism. If this book had been written about heart transplants, NASA or cancer treatments, it would be a best seller. Unfortunately the success of this book has been hampered by the public's near hysterical fear of dioxin, a fear perpetrated by the US media.

Decades of Dioxin is a teacher, a truth squad and an eye opener all wrapped into one. Those who don't read it are destined to keep monsters under their beds.

Rating:
Summary: Science Matters! An Eye Opener in the QUest for Truth
Review: As the title implies, Dr. Warren B. Crummett spent decades of his career as an honored analytical chemist working with and studying dioxin in its various forms. In particular, Dr. Crummett focuses on the dioxin known as 2-3-7-8 tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, or 2-3-7-8-TCDD. This is the type of dioxin that has accounted for so much media hysteria over the past twenty years; yet, as Dr. Crummett ably shows, it is only a molecule, not a monster - and perhaps not a very scary one at that.

Decades of Dioxin traces Dr. Crummett's life and career, starting with his boyhood in rural West Virginia. The chapters are short and stand-alone; indeed, one of the charms of the book is that readers may read it in short chapters or longer installments. The explanations, insights, photos, graphics, quotes, and anecdotes all shed light on the author's life and the dioxin molecule, and it's fascinating reading.

The quotations that help introduce each chapter are often humorous, always apt, as this one by Will Rogers: "I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts."

Warren Crummett joined the Dow Chemical Company in 1950, and was assigned to work under Dr. Vernon Stenger, who was regarded by some as the best industrial analytical chemist in the world. Dioxins came to light in the 1960s, and Dr. Crummett traces the events of several industrial accidents in which dioxins were released, and nothing more than a severe case of acne was ever detected. He doesn't shy away from the tragedy of Seveso, Italy, in which 26 women underwent abortions after a dioxin release; studies of the fetuses showed they were normal, even at the chromosomal level.

Subsequent chapters deal with the challenge of identifying smaller and smaller amounts of trace chemicals, such as dioxins. Several of these chapters warrant special attention for the intriguing view they offer into the world of the analytical chemist. Dr. Crummett puts these unimaginably small amounts into layman's terms: one part per trillion, for example, is a six-inch leap on a journey to the sun, whereas one part per quintillion is one pinhead on an area the size of Earth's surface.

Dr. Crummett also details the frustration of watching sound scientific knowledge disappear under a media onslaught of self-proclaimed "experts" with scant training in chemistry. He presents a reasoned argument against the extremely low levels of allowable dioxin as set by the government, given that dioxin has not been proven to cause anything more serious than a case of acne in some of the people who are directly exposed to it. Those who recall the "saccharine scare" of the 1970s will no doubt see his point.

The book also offers an interesting insight into the corporate world. The Dow Chemical Company was an acknowledged leader in detection of very low levels of trace chemicals, but Dr. Crummett doesn't shy away from citing incidents of company shortcomings during his tenure in their labs. Lest readers think this book is nothing more than pro-Dow propaganda, Dr. Crummett spends quite a bit of time acknowledging leading scientists in the field, including those working for regulatory agencies such as the U. S. Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Dr. Crummett wrote this book in an attempt to report the facts about a topic that creates a knee-jerk fear reaction in most people, thanks in large part to the government and the media. The author's enthusiasm for finding, understanding and communicating the raw scientific facts, is relentless. His adventurous outlook will be refreshing to any person considering a career in science. This quest for the truth is indeed the foundation of this book, as well as the life story of its author. It's the defining characteristic of a successful scientist.

Decades of Dioxin should be required reading for all environmentalists, lawyers, professors, law makers, public policy makers, regulators and others who deal with any aspect of dioxin and other toxins. The book's facts, truths and explanations equip the reader with a solid grasp and outlook on handling public policy safety concerns.

The tragedy of this book is its lack of sales and distribution. The book's facts, insights and practical information appear to be obscured by a growing culture of distrust of industrial capitalism. If this book had been written about heart transplants, NASA or cancer treatments, it would be a best seller. Unfortunately the success of this book has been hampered by the public's near hysterical fear of dioxin, a fear perpetrated by the US media.

Decades of Dioxin is a teacher, a truth squad and an eye opener all wrapped into one. Those who don't read it are destined to keep monsters under their beds.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Scientific Perspective
Review: First, I'll address the first review. It is blatantly incorrect and misleading. Warren Crummett was the managing scientist in Dow's environmental research area from the late '70's until his retirement. This book was not rushed out in response to the flood. This book has been in the making for many decades. The flood did not cause contamination of the river by 2378TCDD. The data is in the public record - just read it!

Now, to the review:

This book is a refreshing look at science in the commercial world we live in today. The writing style is unusual, providing the reader with snapshots spaced throughout the evolution not only of Warren's life and career, but through the political evolution of industrial environmental contamination and toxicology. The reader is introduced to the meaning of environmental contamination and toxicology and just how ludicrously our laws have evolved.

For example, the measurement of parts-per-quadrillion levels of 2378-TCDD are required currently for wastewater at industrial sites such as Dow. The text brings these numbers into clear perspective and shows that, if one can analyze to this exceedingly low limit, that trillions of unique chemical species can be detected in what is considered to be clean drinking water!

Decades of Dioxin was completed well afer Warren's retirement. To stereotype it as was done in the first review involves the same degree of misguided environmental paranoia that led to so many ill-informed government regulations that are in place today.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting book...
Review: One reviewer is from Midland and give it raves. One from Cary NC gives it raves.

What I wonder is why this book was given out by Dow public relations people at the offices of our local governments. I have been approached by several people in the Tittabawassee Township offices that comment that they have a large number of these books that were dropped off by someone with Dow's PR office.

This book is a dangerous screed about how Dow knows everything and that scientists outside of Dow and outside the United States are ignorant about dioxin. That is HOGWASH! This book and threats of Dow leaving Midland Michigan are striking fear into the hearts of people here. This book is just another ploy by the Dow Chemical Corporation to exhonerate dioxin and allow it to continue 'leaking' this chemical into the environment.

Money talks and there are millions talking in Midland, Saginaw and Bay City Michigan and in the halls of local governments and state government in Lansing Michigan and at the ATSDR in Atlanta and of course the center of money: Washington DC.

This book is being billed as 'the truth about dioxin'. One thing that I've learned is that 'the truth' often depends on who is paying for it...

Rating:
Summary: Makes you think
Review: The first reviewer is way off base.

The second reviewer knows of what he is talking.

Warren Crummett was an internationally reknowned analytical chemist who worked at Dow. He headed up a laboratory which revolutionized the analysis of dioxin at levels which are almost incomprehensible to the human mind. In addition, he was a member of the team which hypothesized that dioxins were formed during combustion(as long as chlorine was present). Basically, he was the first to discover that dioxin was a product of incineration.

So I find it quite ironic that many of those with environmental concerns would blast the guy whose lab could find the stuff better than any other lab in the world and tell you how it got there in the first place!

Dioxin made Dr. Crummett's career and he muses as to how this is so. He feels the risk of dioxin is overblown and clearly points out the sensationalism of the media and the paranoia of governmental agencies.

The first reviewer implies that Dr. Crummett wrote the book in cahoots with Dow management. HOGWASH! Dow management was ambivalent about Dr. Crummett. Can you imagine being president of Dow and one of your scientists is finding dioxin all over the place and advancing the analytical technology to assure that even more would be found in the future? Management was happy to have a scientist of Dr. Crummett's caliber but were afraid of what he might find.

Dr. Crummett's book makes one ponder about risk. Unfortunately, we will never know the exact risks of extremely low levels of dioxin but as a physician I feel that in the grand scheme of things it's very small. The fear and paranoia of this molecule is a much greater risk to one's health than the molecule itself.

Bagassosis M.D.

Rating:
Summary: Makes you think
Review: The first reviewer is way off base.

The second reviewer knows of what he is talking.

Warren Crummett was an internationally reknowned analytical chemist who worked at Dow. He headed up a laboratory which revolutionized the analysis of dioxin at levels which are almost incomprehensible to the human mind. In addition, he was a member of the team which hypothesized that dioxins were formed during combustion(as long as chlorine was present). Basically, he was the first to discover that dioxin was a product of incineration.

So I find it quite ironic that many of those with environmental concerns would blast the guy whose lab could find the stuff better than any other lab in the world and tell you how it got there in the first place!

Dioxin made Dr. Crummett's career and he muses as to how this is so. He feels the risk of dioxin is overblown and clearly points out the sensationalism of the media and the paranoia of governmental agencies.

The first reviewer implies that Dr. Crummett wrote the book in cahoots with Dow management. HOGWASH! Dow management was ambivalent about Dr. Crummett. Can you imagine being president of Dow and one of your scientists is finding dioxin all over the place and advancing the analytical technology to assure that even more would be found in the future? Management was happy to have a scientist of Dr. Crummett's caliber but were afraid of what he might find.

Dr. Crummett's book makes one ponder about risk. Unfortunately, we will never know the exact risks of extremely low levels of dioxin but as a physician I feel that in the grand scheme of things it's very small. The fear and paranoia of this molecule is a much greater risk to one's health than the molecule itself.

Bagassosis M.D.