Toxic Synergy

Fred Marsh writes about synergistic effects: "When toxicity information is available, it is always for a single chemical, whereas Intel's toxic emissions are always mixtures. It is well known that a mixture of two (or more) chemicals can be much more toxic than the sum of their individual toxicities. Because Intel can release nearly 100 toxic chemicals, the resulting mixtures can be exceedingly complex. There is no way to study all possible combinations; all we can do is recognize that the synergistic toxicities of mixtures can be much higher. One published study showed that a mixture of just two chemicals resulted in a toxicity 1,600 times higher than the sum of the two individual toxicities. Acetone, methanol, and isopropyl alcohol, which Intel can release in such high quantities that they're not even required to report them, are known to greatly increase the toxicities of even mildly toxic chemicals. So the message is this: Whatever published toxicity information you might find about the chemicals Intel releases, the toxicity of their mixtures is probably worse, much worse, In a very real sense, residents who are forced to breathe Intel fumes serve as guinea pigs for exposure to untested and unknown health threats."