Chemical-Sponsored Fishing Fest To Donate Contaminated Fish To The Poor

Here's an example of a face-saving charity move gone horribly, horribly wrong:

According to the Michigan Messenger, Dow Chemical is sponsoring Walleye Fest, in which locals are to catch fish in a river believed to be toxic enough to be on the federal Superfund. And what are they doing with the fish?

Donating them to the poor:

And just as the Michigan Department of Community Health is warning that children and pre-menopausal women should mostly avoid eating river fish including walleye because of contamination from polychlorinated biphenyls and dioxin, organizers of the festival say they plan to donate walleye fillets to a local food bank.

Not great for a company already not in good green standing.

The dioxin cleanup near the fishing competition's location begins this Friday.

And while it's not exactly clear how much dioxins would do what to whom (because dioxins are all around us in varying quantities), the World Health Organization has this warning about effects on human health:

Short-term exposure of humans to high levels of dioxins may result in skin lesions, such as chloracne and patchy darkening of the skin, and altered liver function. Long-term exposure is linked to impairment of the immune system, the developing nervous system, the endocrine system and reproductive functions. Chronic exposure of animals to dioxins has resulted in several types of cancer.