Cleaning up disinfectants - dioxin in household cleaning liquids

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is looking into allegations that the manufacturer of a popular household disinfectant concealed evidence that the solution contained trace amounts of dioxin, an industrial contaminant believed to pose health risks.

There are different kinds of dioxin, which occur as by-products in some chemical manufacturing. Scientists disagree about whether there is such a thing as a "safe" level of exposure.

Monsanto discovered TCDD, the most potent form of dioxin, in its disinfectant, called Santophen, in the early 1970s. But Monsanto continued making the disinfectant and did not inform the makers of Lysol -- Lehn & Fink Products -- about the dioxin problem out of fear that the company would stop buying Santophen, according to testimony given by Monsanto officials in a 1985 court case.

Monsanto also did not inform EPA about the contamination of Santophen with TCDD as required by federal law, according to Cate Jenkins, a senior scientist in EPA's regulatory branch. EPA is reviewing Monsanto's failure to relay this information as part of a larger probe of allegations that Monsanto falsified health effects studies in an effort to hide potential health risks from exposure to dioxin.

In 1983 Monsanto stopped manufacturing Santophen. But Dow Chemical and other companies began selling similar disinfectants. Today the offending chemical is used in some 127 cleaning products, including liquid Lysol, and all of them should be tested for dioxin, according to Jenkins.

In 1985 scientists at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) stumbled onto the presence of dioxin in one cleaning solution when they were developing a method for identifying TCDD in human fat tissue and other forms of dioxin showed up in their testing materials. It turned out that there was dioxin in the solution used to wash the floors in the building where the laboratory was located -- and the solution was identical to one previously made by Monsanto. In a paper published in 1986 the scientists said they felt "this cleaning solution does not present a health risk to workers"; at the same time, however, they cited a 1975 study suggesting a possible connection between exposure to it and a type of liver disease that has been linked to dioxin.

Thus far EPA has yet to look into the question of whether a number of disinfectants are contaminated by dioxin, although Jenkins believes there's enough evidence to suggest that the problem is widespread. She also raises concerns about the possible stockpiling of Santophen. One Canadian company, Ostrem Chemical, continued using the product until May 1990, according to owner Roar Tungland.

Lehn & Fink says it tested samples of Lysol dating from the use of Santophen between the early 1970s and 1983 and found no dioxin. The company also says it is confident, based on assurances from its current supplier, that the disinfectants it manufactures today are dioxin-free.

But Jenkins still questions whether the products are dioxin-free, given the seemingly consistent contamination of disinfectants with the troublesome byproduct.

COPYRIGHT 1991 Common Cause Magazine
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