dioxin

Dioxin is a specific organic unsaturated non-antiaromatic six-membered ring compound with a chemical formula of C4H4O2. However, the term dioxin is used generically by most authorities to include chlorinated dioxins with furans and many derivative compounds as a complex of at least 75 ubiquitous and environmentally persistent organochlorine compounds, of variable toxicity.

Dioxins are not a single chemical. They are a family of chemicals that contain two benzene rings connected by a pair of oxygen molecules. When chlorine atoms are connected to the benzene rings, we have a chlorinated dioxin. The particular chlorinated dioxin of greatest interest and concern is 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (generally abbreviated TCDD).

The 2,4,5-T used by Courtney and co-workers … was contaminated with approximately 30 ppm of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (dioxin). … The present work describes the results of our teratogenic studies on hamsters with samples of 2,4,5-T containing varying amounts of dioxin and with samples of 2,4-D from different manufacturers.