[Environmental micropollutants in livestock products from Susa Valley, Piedmont]

to describe the contamination due to dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs of cattle dairy and meat products in cattle herds from Susa Valley (Piedmont) since the second half of 2004.

descriptive study based on a biomonitoring campaign on bovine bulk milk and muscle.

the official samplings have been carried out between 2004 and 2010: the dataset refers to 99 mass milk samples and 24 muscle samples from 51 cattle herds based in 23 municipalities of the valley.

counts and frequencies of samples exceeding either the maximum levels or the action levels set by the European legislation; moreover relative distributions of congeners (profiles) were considered.

DL-PCBs showed median concentration values double when compared with dioxins values and a couple of congeners (2,3,4,7,8-PeCDF, 118 DL-PCB) were particularly abundant. More than 60% of both the milk samples and herds exceeded the action levels with the involvement of 10 municipalities most of which located nearby a local steel smelter. The DL-PCB values in milk were associated with the distance of each herd from the steel plant. However, the temporal trend highlights a clear decrease of the contamination over the 2004-2010 period, when the plant was renewed and the production levels where negatively impacted by the global economical crisis.

the findings of the monitoring activity allowed the understanding of the origin and the spatio-temporal evolution of the contamination: this knowledge may be helpful in orienting future controls and the risk mitigation strategies.