TCDD: The Deadliest Toxic Chemical Known to Science

On Saturday July 10, 1976, it was a warm spring day filled with blue skies and normalcy. With children playing outside under the sun-kissed rays and others enjoying lunch outdoors, all were oblivious to one of the biggest man-made chemical disasters that was about to take place. What was a seemingly picturesque afternoon was soon to be history due to the foreboding thick, whitish cloud overhead. The ominous cloud that loomed over Seveso, Italy attracted rapid international media attention and became headlines everywhere during the 1980s. The mysterious cloud was the result of an explosion during the production of trichlorophenol at the chemical plant ICMESA (Industrie Chimiche Meda Società Azionaria). However, it wasn’t necessarily the explosion that kept the public’s attention, but the significant amounts of the highly toxic 2, 3, 7, 8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) that the cloud contained.