Dioxins in U.S. food and estimated daily intake

Congener-specific analyses for polychlorinated dioxins and dibenzofurans were performed on eighteen dairy, meat, and fish samples obtained from a supermarket in upstate New York. Dioxin toxic equivalents (TEqs) on a whole or wet weight basis for these food samples ranged from 0.02 to 1.5 parts per trillion (ppt). Data on American food consumption rates were used to estimate a U.S. range of dioxin intake from food. Based on these first congener-specific dioxin analyses of U.S. food, U.S. average daily intake of "International" dioxin toxic equivalents for an adult weighing 65 kilograms (kg) was estimated to be between 18 to 192 picograms TEq or 0.3 to 3.0 picograms per kilogram of body weight. Our previous results for cow's milk, human breast milk, and soy-based infant formula were used to calculate intake for infants. The relatively high level of dioxins commonly reported in human breast milk from America contributes from 35 to 53 picograms of dioxin toxic equivalents per kilogram of body weight to the nursing infant per day in its first year of life. This value greatly exceeds the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated dose which would lead to one excess cancer per one million people of 0.006 pg of TCDD per kg of body weight per day over a seventy year lifetime or similar reference doses used by some other countries of up to 10/pg/kg/day over a 70 year lifetime.