DIOXINS IN US FOOD AND ESTIMATED DAILY INTAKE

Congener-specific analyses for polychlorinated dioxins and dibenzofura ns were performed on eighteen dairy, meat, and fish samples obtained f rom a supermarket in upstate New York. Dioxin toxic equivalents (TEqs) on a whole or wet weight basis for these food samples ranged from 0.0 2 to 1.5 parts per trillion (ppt). Data on American food consumption r ates were used to estimate a U.S. range of dioxin intake from food. Ba sed on these first congener-specific dioxin analyses of U.S. food, U.S . average daily intake of ''International'' dioxin toxic equivalents f or an adult weighing 65 kilograms (kg) was estimated to be between 18 and 192 picograms TEq or 0.3 to 3.0 picograms per kilogram of body wei ght. Our previous results for cow's milk, human breast milk, and soy-b ased infant formula were used to calculate intake for infants. The rel atively high level of dioxins commonly reported in human breast milk f rom America contributes from 35 to 53 picograms of dioxin toxic equiva lents 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 cance r per one million people of 0.006 pg of TCDD per kg of body weight per day over a seventy year lifetime((1)) or similar reference doses used by some other countries of up to 10/pg/kg/day over a 70 year lifetime .