Residents' dioxin levels three times normal, report shows

4.25pm UPDATE

A report into the effects of exposure to dioxin from Ivon Watkins-Dow's chemical plant has found that people living in the area have on average three times the normal level of the chemical in their blood.

Residents have claimed for years that the plant's emissions caused birth defects, cancer and other diseases.

The dioxin came from the former Ivon Watkins-Dow, now Dow Agro-Sciences, plant next to the New Plymouth suburb of Paritutu, which made the herbicide 2,4,5-T from 1960 until 1987.

Residents were found by the study, prepared for the Ministry of Health, to have blood levels of TCDD of between two and five times the normal expected levels.

TCDD is part of the chlorinated dioxin family and is present in the herbicide 2,4,5-T.

Ministry of Health: Interim dioxin report