Center for Health, Environment and Justice
Everyone's BackyardScience Feature
Dioxin in Our Food
Americans accumulate harmful levels of dioxins in their bodies mostly through the ingestion of food. Some segments of the population, such as nursing babies and people who eat a diet high in animal fat or foods contaminated because of their proximity to dioxin release sites, are exposed to higher than average levels of dioxin. Others, such as Vietnam veterans and some chemical plant workers, have accumulated additional dioxins because of their exposure to Agent Orange or other dioxin-contaminated chemicals in the workplace.
Approximately 90%, and perhaps as much as 98%, of the dioxin that average Americans are exposed to comes from the foods they regularly eat. Because dioxins accumulate in fatty tissue, they are found mostly in meat, fish, and dairy products. Consequently, when people consume these foods, they also consume dioxins, which then build up in their bodies. As the table below shows, ground beef has the highest dioxin content, with 1.5 picograms per gram (pg/gram) which is equivalent to 1.5 parts per trillion (ppt), of all meats consumed by Americans. The widespread low-level exposure of the general population is the result of ingestion of dioxin in common foods.
Source: The American People’s Dioxin Report Center for Health, Environment and Justice, 1999
|
Dioxin Levels in U.S. Foods |
|
|
Food Type |
(pg/gram food) Total TEQ (ppt) |
|
Ground beef |
1.5 |
|
Soft blue cheese |
0.7 |
|
Beef rib steak |
0.65 |
|
Lamb sirloin |
0.4 |
|
Heavy cream |
0.4 |
|
Soft cream cheese |
0.3 |
|
American cheese sticks |
0.3 |
|
Pork chops |
0.3 |
|
Bologna |
0.12 |
|
Cottage cheese |
0.04 |
|
Beef rib/sirloin tip |
0.04 |
|
Chicken drumstick |
0.03 |
|
Haddock |
0.03 |
|
Cooked ham |
0.03 |
|
Perch |
0.023 |
|
Cod |
0.023 |
Source: Schecter, A., Startin, J., Wright, C., Kelly, M., Papke, O., Lis, A., Ball, M., and Olson, J.R. (1994) “Congener-specific levels of dioxins and dibenzofurans in U.S. food and estimated daily dioxin toxic equivalent intake.” Environmental Health Perspectives 102: 962-966.
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