National Research Council Rejects EPA Risk Assessment Methodology

...the EPA assumed that because extremely high doses of dioxin in animals caused cancer, there was a linear risk for humans: very low exposure levels would still present a risk. The NRC concluded that the "EPA's decision to rely solely on a default linear model lacked adequate scientific support."...

Given that many environmental health scares (such as PCBs in salmon) are driven by linear risk assessments, it is important for reporters to determine whether the bulk of the evidence points to the chemical being genotoxic (thus warranting the linear risk assessment) or non-genotoxic.

Because its default position has been that all carcinogenic risks are linear, the EPA is often at odds with other international regulatory bodies (and indeed, the Food and Drug Administration here in the U.S.) in its risk assessments. The media should be wary of falling for advocacy campaigns that make the same assumptions.

Also, a link to Michael Fumento's Call off the Dioxin Dogs