Only after a decade of analysis, and long after the WHO and EU, will the EPA release a risk assessment of dioxins in our food supply.

Dioxins are nasty chemicals. They are human carcinogens. They cause reproductive problems, wreck the immune system, and interfere with hormonal production. The World Health Organization ranks them among the "Dirty Dozen," a group made up of organic toxins that persist in the environment (and our bodies) for decades.

Although they are produced mainly by industrial processes, more than 90 percent of the dioxins in our bodies get there through our food -- particularly meat, dairy products, and fish.

Given their ubiquity -- and toxicity -- it stands to reason that government health officials would have long ago determined what levels of dioxins are safe in our food supply and would have set appropriate standards.

But when has reason triumphed in matters related to food safety? It wasn't until last August that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), after nearly a decade of analysis, announced that it would be releasing a risk assessment of dioxins in food, due out sometime this month.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Caroline Smith DeWaal, the food safety director of the consumer group Center for Science in the Public Interest, praised the EPA's decision.