Despite this disparity in the quantity of environmental releases, dioxins and furans have dominated the debate over regulatory controls of the effluents from pulp and paper plants that use chlorine bleaching because chlorinated phenols and volatile organochlorines are estimated to be very much less toxic. Some individuals and groups remained concerned, however, about the heterogeneous soup of organochlorines discharged in bulk from pulp and paper mills because most of these compounds have not been toxicologically analyzed and because the chemical transformations organochlorines undergo in the environment are not fully understood. Staking out a precautionary position in the face of scientific uncertainty, some interested and affected.
