Very very important. Dioxins are incredibly toxic and persistent. Yes, I agree with the author, dioxins are potentially much more of problem than vinyl chloride.

At the back of my mind, I was worried about this. I don't think the dioxins would be present if the spill products hadn't been set on fire.

And guess “who” has an article about dioxin? https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dioxins-and-their-effects-on-human-health

I am dubious about this. Vinyl chloride monomer is a very simple molecule (C2H3Cl). Combustion will tear it apart into the combustion products, phosgene (COCl2) and hydrogen chloride (HCl) (bad enough). "Dioxin" refers to a family of complex molecules built on the benzene ring. I don't see how combustion could lead to it. It would be like burning natural gas and having fats and sugars result.

But the guy has an issue with dioxin, so up go the flags. I notice he does not even identify what molecule he is talking about.

More cancer and messed up babies

The “safe” lifetime exposure to dioxins is an amount equal to 1/25,000,000th of a 325mg aspirin.

We are now 12 days into this and I'm still seeing theories of what COULD be hazardous. It's not that hard to test the air and water around the site and the proposed areas it's effecting. A couple hundred dollars for expedited analysis.

Here is an example of pyrolysis and combustion products of poly(vinyl chloride) https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=106993

Yes Dioxane is on there as a pyrolysis product (absence of oxygen) but not as a combustion.

I'm ready to see some numbers and not just theories.

This is a place I remember hearing about when I was growing up. I lived in the STL area. They were bought out by the government because of dioxin. https://timeline.com/this-missouri-town-was-so-polluted-the-epa-just-bought-it-and-incinerated-all-the-houses-6cf4bacae42a