Between 1961 and 1971 approximately 49 million litres of Agent Orange was sprayed in South Vietnam. Much controversy surrounds the use of Agent Orange by the US Air Force due to claims that exposure levels endured by military personnel later resulted in birth defects in their offspring. Dioxin is a contaminant of Agent Orange which has been shown to cause health problems in humans and is the focus of this workshop.
However, dioxin is not confined to w-ar zones and has previously been used in Australia in the heavy metal industry. Improper practices in the past have led to release of dioxin in the Sydney water system. In this workshop you will be
reviewing the potential risk of toxicity from Sydney water and how this toxin causes its effects.
Issues to consider include:
? Importance of bioaccumulation and half life in toxic chemicals
? What are the health effects of dioxin?
? How good is the evidence of risk?
? What is the significance of the Aryl hydrocarbon receptor?

Checklist for Reading a Paper
Paper section Questions to ask
Title What is the paper about?
Abstract What are overall findings of the paper?
Introduction Aims – What is the purpose of the study?
Aims and
objectives
Do the authors explain the study rationale?
What are the specific objectives?
What are the hypotheses?
Background Why is the study important?
How does this study fit into wider literature?
Methods Who are the subjects?
Subjects How many subjects are required? Why?
Where was the data is collected?
How were the subjects chosen?
Treatments What treatments were given?
How were they administered?
Were there groups selected?
Methodology What were the methods used?
Why are these methods used?
How are the methods performed?
What are they measuring?
Are there multiple measurements?
Is there randomization?
Statistical methods What statistical tests are used?
Are they appropriate?
Are there sub-group analyses?
Are there adjustments?
Are there corrections for multiple analyses?
Results
Number of subjects Are there any deviations from planned number?
Baseline data What are the baseline characteristics of the
subjects and sub-groups?
Outcomes What are the results for each identified objective?
How was this achieved?
Are there differences between the study groups?
How confident are the authors about the results
(ranges, confidence intervals, SEM)
Discussion How are the results interpreted?
Interpretation Are there any biases or imprecisions?
Were the original hypotheses answered?
Did results confirm/refute previous findings?
Application Are findings valid? Significant? Novel?
Overall conclusion What is the overall interpretation of the results?
How does it fit into the current evidence?