Dow-funded UM dioxin study criticized for bias

Despite this, U-M’s lead researcher on the project — a man some environmental health scientists say should not be seen as objective because of his track record of working for industry interests — is actively insisting his study should shape regulatory action on dioxin.

Some warn that the project is biased, and that the University of Michigan is being used as part of a Dow campaign to avoid liability for some of the most serious dioxin contamination in the entire nation.

Dr. David Garabrant , professor emeritus and founding director of U-M School of Public Health’s Risk Science Center , is the lead researcher on U-M’s Dioxin Exposure Study which was funded with $15 million from Dow.

Since 2004, Garabrant and the university have measured dioxin levels in human blood, household dust and soil at residences in and around the Tittabawassee River floodplain, part of the larger contaminated Saginaw River watershed.

“Our study is directly relevant to the issues in Midland and Saginaw. It is very well done. It is rigorous,” Garabrant told Michigan Messenger in a recent interview. “There is no relation between dioxin in soil and dioxin in blood. The mere fact of living on the soil does not have any influence on your blood level of dioxin.”

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