I am FlaminNoraImPregnantPanda's husband.
Sadly I am not an authority on dioxin, I am an expert on other things.
Well I have too little information to be able to make a judgement, this might be a tiny storm in a teacup or it could be a total house of horror depending on a series of different things.
- If the level of dioxin is very low then I would say "do not worry", with the improvements in anayltical equipment it has been possible in recent years to measure almost anything at the very low levels which are the natural background level.
At low levels the jury is still out on dioxin, it might be a human carcinogen (substance which causes cancer) or it might not. I would err on the side of caution and assume it is carcinogenic. But many things in everyday life are carcinogenic (weakly). A good example is burnt toast or a flame grilled burger, both are likely to contain some small amounts of carcinogens.
You need to find out how much dioxin [2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCCD)] is involved. At high levels like those seen in Italy at Seveso it caused some perfectly horrible effects. It was killing animals and causing some health effects in humans.
Be careful the acute toxicity of dioxin changes greatly from one species of animal to another. I very much doubt if the level of the dioxin would be able to cause acute effects.
- You need to consider or get someone to consider by what route the dioxin will travel to you. I know nothing about the case you have, for exposure in food you can get the UK limits here www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/faq/dioxinspcbs/
The great problem is that depending on a person's habits and diet their daily dioxin dose could be different.
- You need to consider what physical form the dioxin waste is in, it is a fine powder, is it very fine particles in the air (smoke), it is a liquid waste or is it a dense solid waste with large particles ?
For a solid waste how easy is it for the dioxin to leach out of the particles, if the dioxin is locked up inside large particles then it might not be able to leach out into places where it can do you harm.
- I think you need to ask the following questions
A. What form is the dioxin waste in ?
B. How much dioxin is in the waste in terms of mg per kilos (ppm)
C. Which type of dioxin is it, is it the worst one or a milder one ?
D. How much dioxin will be escaping into the environment per day in an uncontrolled way (eg as dust)
E. How much dioxin will be deposited per day per square meter in the nearest residential area to the site ?
F. How large a dioxin dose would a typical home grown leafy vegtable give me if I was to grow my own vegtables on land near the site ?
G. How much dioxin should I expect to inhale per day from dust in the air
Based on the answers to F and G you could work out a dioxin dose per day for an adult or a child who has got past the stage of crawling on the floor eating dirt and sucking at random things
H. Ask if the environmental experts have calculated from the rate at which dioxin arrives on land, and the rate at which is breaks down what the equilibrium level will be. Ask for this in micrograms per kilo of soil for the soil in the top layer.
Based on the answer for question H, you could work out the dose per day for a small child if you know how much dirt the child eats per day.
You need to ask a toxicologist what the health effects of the amounts of dioxin calculated for F,G and H are. Sorry but I am not able to give out medical advice on what will happen if you eat x nanograms of dioxin.