THE CONTAMINATION OF ROAD TANKER BULK MIL K IN SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN WITH 2,3,4,7,8-PENTACHLORODIBENZOFURAN

The spectrum of the emission borne polychlorinated dioxins and furans (PCDD/Fs) with a total of 210 different chlorinated isomers is reduced to an abundance of 17 specimens with the typical 2,3,7,8-chlorine sub stitution in vertebrate organisms. Under these congeners the 2,3,4,7,8 -PeCDF plays a prominent role, either from its contents in animal fats or from its toxicological evaluation with a toxicity equivalency fact or of 0.5. In the years 1993/94, therefore, a total of 404 road tanker bulk milk samples from Schleswig Holstein have been analyzed for that pilot congener. The mean content of 0.76 pg/g milk fat correlates clo sely to a calculated content of the total toxic equivalents of 0.73 pg Ite/g. This value is nearly compatible with the strategy of consumer protection against an excess uptake of PCDD/F (max 1 pg ITE/kg bw) as the corresponding threshold for milk fat is just exceeded by 25%.