Risk assessment of Dioxins and DL-PCBs and their dietary exposure in the Cypriot population-ImproRisk

Dioxins are a group of chemically related compounds that are unintentional by-products of various industrial processes, including the manufacturing of herbicides and pesticides, paper bleaching, and combustion processes such as waste incineration. The most toxic dioxin is 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD). Dioxins are highly toxic and can cause reproductive and developmental problems, damage the immune system, interfere with hormones, and also cause cancer. Long-term exposure to dioxins has been shown to result in severe skin disease (chloracne) and altered liver function.
PCBs are a group of synthetic organic chemicals that contain 209 individual compounds (known as congeners) with varying levels of toxicity. PCBs were used in a variety of industrial applications, including as coolants and lubricants in transformers, capacitors, and other electrical equipment. Dioxin-like PCBs are a subset of PCBs that have similar toxic effects and mechanisms of action as dioxins. Dioxin-like PCBs can cause similar health effects as dioxins, such as cancer, immune system suppression, nervous system effects, reproductive and developmental problems, and endocrine disruption.
Dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs are mainly released into the environment through combustion processes, industrial activities, and as by-products of chemical manufacturing. Human exposure occurs primarily through the food supply, particularly from animal fats in meat, dairy products, fish, and shellfish. They accumulate in the food chain due to their fat-solubility and persistence in the environment.
In the current report the dietary exposure of the target population is studied using ImproRisk model v.0.5.4. The aim of this risk assessment study was to estimate the dietary dioxins intake of the population in Cyprus, to compare this exposure estimate with the Tolerable Weekly Intake (TWI) of 2x10-6 μg/kg body weight (b.w.) per week and to calculate the contribution rate of the major food groups to the dietary dioxin exposure.
Mean and 95th percentile dietary dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs exposure of the Cypriot population was calculated as 3x10-6 and 1x10-5 μg/kg b.w. per week, respectively. It was found that approximately 42 % of the whole population was exposed over the TWI value of 2x10-6 μg/Kg b.w. per week. Much higher exposure was observed for infants, toddlers and other children due to their lower body weight and may be from the consumption habits.
There was no significant difference in dioxins intake between genders and different geographical areas.
Fish (29.6%), cheese (29.5%), meat (14.1) and milk (13.4%) were the food categories with the highest contribution to the dioxins intake for the whole population. For infants, milk had the highest contribution (72.7%) in dioxins exposure.