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Dioxin and PCB monitoring programs for food and feeding
stuff in most countries of the world, including many European
Countries are currently inadequate. Better control of food production
lines and food processing procedures is needed to minimize
entry of dioxin to the food chain and will help to avoid dioxin
contamination accidents. This would also improve the ability
to trace back a possible contamination to its source. European
guidelines for monitoring programs should be established to ensure
comparable and meaningful results. These guidelines should
define the minimum requirements for the design of monitoring
programs, analytical methods, and quality assurance.
Though data from Northern Europe shows that the general population
exposure to dioxin and PCB has decreased during the last
ten years these compounds continue to be a risk of accidental contamination
of the food chain. The most prominent recent example
is the Belgian dioxin contamination of feeding stuff in 1999. The
Belgian dioxin contamination was not detected due to dioxin monitoring
programs but by their direct biological effects seen in animals.
Four other cases of dioxin contamination have been detected
in Europe since 1997 due to local monitoring programs. One of
them (citrus pulp pellets 1998) was in a much larger scale than the
Belgian dioxin contamination.
The general population’s exposure to dioxins and PCBs is still in
the same range (1-4 pg WHO-TEQ/kg body weight and day) as
the recently revised WHO tolerable daily intake (TDI). There is
concern that short-term high level exposure to dioxins, furans,
and PCB may cause biological effects on the human fetal development
and further research is required.
Further actions to control sources building on considerable advances
already made in many countries may need to be supplemented
by measures to prevent direct contamination of feeding
stuff or food to reduce general population exposure further.