NATION/WORLD
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, August 30,1993
7
Research links cancer, dioxin
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Leukemia, lymphoma and liver cancer are occurring at higher than-normal rates in people who were exposed to a cloud of dioxin from a chemical-plant explosion in Italy 17 years ago, researchers have found.
"We found a lot of cancer that was already known to be associated with dioxin" in laboratory studies and other research, said one of the study's authors, Dr. Adriana Troni of the University of Milan.
An Environmental Protection Agency researcher coordinating a review of dioxin's health dangers said the study, to be published today, was "one more nail in the coffin" for dioxin.
"This, together with other studies, clearly supports that dioxin has the potential to cause cancer in people,
just as it does in every animal it's been tested in," said Linda Birnbaum, the EPA's director of environmental toxicology. "The weight of evidence is becoming overwhelmed."
The study, covering the period 10 years after the 1976 chemical-plant explosion in Seveso, Italy, removes one of the last remaining doubts about dioxin's deadly effects, Birmbaum said.
"For years people have said, 'Seveso had such high exposures, but we haven't seen any cancers.' We've been saying we just haven't waited long enough," Birbaum said.
Proving that dioxin causes cancer in people, not just animals, has been important because efforts to clean up dioxin have caused tremendous expense and inconvenience, such as the federal buyout and evacuation of Times Beach. Mo., after dioxin was discovered in 1982.
In the completed study, the researchers determined the number of cancer cases in more than 36,000 people with varying degrees of exposure to a form of dioxin known as TCDD. The researchers then compared that group with 180,000 people living nearby who were not exposed.
Of the study group, the 4,824 people with moderate exposure to dioxin had 2.8 times the liver cancer risk of the unexposed population. The exposed group had 3.7 times to 5.7 times the risk of leukemia and lymphoma, the researchers found.
The 31,647 people with the smallest exposure to dioxin had double the risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and 3.5 times the risk of cancers called soft-tissue sarcomas, which can occur at various places in the body.
A separate group of 724 people heavily exposed to dioxin did not show a statistically significant cancer
increase, but researchers said the group was too small to allow meaningful conclusions.
He said there was little remaining question about the danger of dioxin, but questions do remain about how widely people are exposed to dioxin.
Dr. Olav Axelson of University Hospital in linkaged worker exposure to dioxin and related chemicals, said, "This is what we have been expecting to see."
Birnbaum said other research is showing that dioxin, in addition to causing cancer, also can have effects on the human reproductive system and the immune system.
The term "dioxin" refers to a family of chemicals produced as by-products in many chemical processes using chlorine. They also are released when chlorine-containing substances are burned in incinerators.
Azerbaijanis await referendum returns
The Associated Press
BAKU. Azerbaijan — Azerbaijanis voted yesterday whether to keep their democratically elected president out of power following his ouster by soldiers and replacement by a longtime Communist boss.
Voters in the strife-torn former Soviet republic turned out in large numbers to respond to the single referendum question: "Do you trust President Abulafaz Elkhebye?"
Official results were expected within three days, and Elicet's chances of winning appeared slim.
enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
At polling stations across Baku, people said they voted against Eicibey, blaming him for Azerbaijan's economic hardship and military losses in a 5-year-old war over the secessionist ethnic Armenian
"They are not leaders. They are enemies of the people," Jafar Mageramov, an English teacher, said of Elcibey and his followers.
A "no" vote would be a major political victory for acting President Geidar Aliev, the former head of Azerbaijan's Communist Party who called the election. Aliev returned to power when Elcibey fed Baku after a military rebellion in June, and putsch leader Surat Huseyov, 34, was made prime minister.
Aliev, 70, hopes the referendum will legalize Elcibey's ouster and cement his own power in the nation of 7 million people.
Aliye is viewed as pro-Moscow, and Elibec bouried neighboring Iran and Turkey and refused to join the Commonwealth of Independent States, the
alliance of former Soviet republics.
Elcibey, a 54-year-old former dissident, lost power one year after he became Azerbaijan's first democratically elected leader. He has remained boiled up since the unrising in the village of Keleki.
Elcibey and his Popular Front urged a boycott of the referendum and accused Aliev of seeking to establish authoritarian rule.
"Without falsification, they will not achieve the necessary results," said Javet Bairamov, a Popular Front official observing the balloting.
Election officials reported an 82 percent turnout two hours before polls were to close. The referendum had to draw more than half of the 4 million registered voters to be considered valid.
Aliev has promised to hold new elections if voters decide to remove Keliriex from office.
Bosnian Muslims want more in land division
SARAJEVO. Bosnia-Herzegovina — Bosnian President Alja Izetbegovic will return to peace talks in Geneva to squeeze out more territory from his Serb and Croat rivals.
But an overhaul seemed unlikely. Bosnia's Serbs and Croats, whose assemblies have adopted the plan, already have said there can be no more changes in the government's favor.
As many as 200,000 people have been killed and 2 million driven from their homes during the 17 months of war in Bosnia.
On Saturday, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic said the plan as it stands was "the last chance for the Muslims." The international mediators had given the three sides until today to come up with a response.
The Parliament of the Muslim-led government declared Saturday that a plan to partition Bosnia into three ethnic states could be accepted only after changes. They told Izetbegovic to seek adjustments to the proposal.
Meanwhile in Mostar, civilians accompanying a U.N. convoy left the embattled city after being
trapped there for three days by Muslims who feared renewed Croat attacks.
The plan to end the war would give the Muslim-led government 31 percent of Bosnia. Serbs would get 52 percent — down from the 70 percent of Bosnia they now control — and Croats 17 percent.
Nigerian leader vows to return from exile
Izetbegovic in the past has demanded 40 percent.
The Associated Press
The Associated Press
LAGOS, Nigeria — It is a classic scene replayed throughout history. A popular figure returns from exile during a time of crisis to claim power, bringing peace to the country or plunging it into bloodshed.
Moshood K.O. Abiola, the wealthy businessman who apparently won the June 12 presidential election, is about to play that role. He is preparing to end a three-week absence on Thursday and, he promises, assume office.
"When M.K.O. comes home, nobody will have a choice any more," said Lagos cab driver Ojo Gibena. "He is who we elected the president."
Nigeria has been thrown off-balance by recent political events.
On Saturday, the nation's top unions began a strike aimed at forcing out the new government, which has promised to hold elections early next year.
Last Thursday, dictator Gen. Ibrahim Bangabida resigned under pressure and left power in the hands of an "interim government" of discredited civilian supporters. There is no commander-in-chief, creating a dangerous power vacuum at the top of the military hierarchy.
The walkouts have virtually stopped the oil production that brings Nigeria 80 percent of its revenues. Abia has been trying to increase the economic pressure urging the United States and Britain to toughen their limited sanctions against Nigeria.
Babangida began the crisis by voiding the June 12 presidential election that, by all accounts, was won overwhelmingly by Abiola. More than 100 people were killed in ensuing riots. Tens of thousands of people have been streaming back to their ethnic homelands out of fear that the situation will collate into ethnic conflict.
Abiola is a member of the Yoruba
tribe from southwest Nigeria, where much of the nation's wealth is located. The northern Hausa-Fulani tribes traditionally have dominated political and military life.
When Bambangia left office in a ceremony in Abuja, the capital, the four governors of Yoruba-dominated states boycotted the event out of loyalty to Abiola.
It is likely that if Abola were to proclaim himself president and begin acting like one, the governors of these four states would throw their loyalties to him — a potentially frightening split in a nation deeply scarred by attempts at secession.
One of history's worst civil wars broke out in 1967 when the southeastern lob tribe tried to form the nation of Bifraa, which resulted in a three-year war that killed an estimated 1 million people.
Both crises were the results of splits in the military that has long dominated this nation during its 33 years of independence. Many knowledgeable Nigerians are deeply troubled by the fact that Bangabida left behind no successor as commander-in-chief of a military rife with rivalries.
In 1980, Babangida narrowly survived a coup led by officers in his military who wanted to revive the idea of a southern breakaway nation.
"As sure as the shah had to go, so will I by the grace of God be in the office to which I was democratically elected," he said. "There is no if about it."
In an interview from London last week, Abiola drew a parallel to the ouster of the shah of Iran and the triumphant return from exile of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
He may have to sneak in. The previous government issued an arrest warrant against Abiola for allegedly violating air traffic rules when he left the country in his private jet three weeks ago.
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