Daily intakes of tributyltin and triphenyltin compounds from meals

Daily intakes of tributyltin (TBT) and triphenyltin (TPT) compounds from meals in Shiga Prefecture, Japan, were investigated by 2 methods. Daily intakes of TBT and TPT by the duplicate portion method were, respectively, 4.7 and 0.7 microgram in 1991 and 2.2 and 0.7 microgram in 1992. Those by the market basket method were, respectively, 6.9 and 5.4 micrograms in 1991 and 6.7 and 1.3 micrograms in 1992. Daily intakes of TBT and TPT by the market basket method were higher than those by the duplicate portion method. These values were considerably lower than acceptable daily intakes of 80 micrograms/50 kg body weight specified by the Welfare Ministry of Japan for bis(tri-n-butyltin)oxide and of 25 micrograms/50 kg body weight specified by the Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization for TPT.