When one thinks about dangerous toxic chemicals, the highly publicized compound known as dioxin clearly comes to mind. But according to a new report by the National Academies of Science, much of the EPA’s data that indicts dioxin is deeply contaminated. To begin with, the NAS expressed concern about how EPA used animal studies to establish dioxin’s risk. They said that rodents, which are exposed to much higher doses of the chemical than human populations, are not necessarily good indicators of toxicity in people. Since the NAS also noted that EPA relied upon linear modeling which is thought to exaggerate the risk of cancer, it seems fears about dioxin are fast becoming less persistent.