Summary
FOR three decades the Ivon Watkins-Dow factory in New Plymouth's western suburbs made 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D. The defoliants' toxic waste was dioxin. And dioxin can cause cancer.
Environmental campaigners pushed authorities for years to investigate their claims of links between dioxin and health problems in the Paritutu community around IWD. Successive such investigations revealed no scientific proof of serious effects.See the full content of this document
Extract
Where We're at with Dioxin
Then, on September 9, 2004, the bombshell hit. The ministry and a team of experts revealed that the first stage of a blood serum study of long-term Parititu residents had found levels of dioxin three times higher than the national average.
After years of a buoyant local economy and a community still basking in the glow of last year's Samurai summer, such news had the potential to dent the district's new-found confidence.But New Plymouth Mayor Peter Tennent is unconc...See the full content of this document
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