Chupacabra Report: News that Gets My Goat

The San Antonio Express-News and the Houston Chronicle ran a column by Texas Association of Business President Bill Hammond titled “Dioxin rules could hurt recovery: Regulations are based on questionable science.”

The TAB is trying to forestall new EPA regulations governing how much of these substances can be released into the air and water, as well levels in the soil that would require remediation. Major sources of dioxins are waste combustion, smelting, refining, chemical manufacturing, and the bleaching of paper and textiles.

Dioxins are a bioaccumulative toxin; a likely carcinogen and mutagen. Concentrating in fat, babies are born with a burden of dioxins passed to them by their mothers. Dioxins move up the food chain to humans through fish, meat, and dairy products. It was the toxin used in the assassination attempt on Ukrainian President Viktor Yushenko in 2004.

The Texas Association of Business is a player in the axis of Texas polluters and Republican politicians. They paid a $10,000 fine to the State of Texas in 2008 for making unlawful direct campaign expenditures. Bill Hammond was the key figure in this illegal corporate campaign funding before the 2002 elections, which packed the statehouse with GOP lawmakers to carry-out the Tom DeLay- directed off-year redistricting that lead to the loss of five Democratic Congressional seats. DeLay faces trial on state charges of money laundering and conspiracy in that same election. Stay tuned.