Expert Panel Warns Females of Dioxins in Food





http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2003/2003-07-01-11.asp

Expert Panel Warns Females of Dioxins in Food

By J.R. Pegg


WASHINGTON, DC, July 1, 2003 (ENS) - The health
risks from dioxins in foods are too unknown for regulatory limits, an
independent panel of experts said today, but a federal interagency
group should spearhead efforts to reduce human exposure to dioxins in
foods.

These efforts should focus specifically on reducing
exposure to girls and women, encouraging stricter compliance with
dietary recommendations to consume less animal fat, and improving
data collection of levels of dioxins in human food and animal feed,
according to the report released by the Institute of Medicine of the
National Academies.

Dioxins - and dioxin-like compounds - are
persistent organic pollutants produced by waste incineration and
other industrial processes. They accumulate in the body fat of
animals and people, and the fats in animal meat, whole mild and full-
fat dairy products are the principal sources of most people's
exposure.

The European Union has set limits for dioxins in
food, as high levels of dioxins have been linked to endocrine-related
conditions, developmental problems, and susceptibility to cancer,
among other health hazards.

But the Institute of Medicine panel determined that
the data gaps are too great to determine whether small amounts of
dioxins are toxic and at what levels they begin to pose risks.

"It is not a question of there being no data, there
is good data and the report quantifies and presents it," said
committee member Julie Caswell, a resource economics professor at the
University of Massachusetts.

Dioxins accumulate in the body over time, so
reducing exposure at an early age is critical. (Photo by Ken Hammond
courtesy USDA)
"But if you want to reduce dioxin exposure the data
to choose strategies to do that is inadequate," she explained.
As a result, the panel is "recommending simple,
prudent steps to further reduce dioxin exposure while data are
gathered that will clarify the risks, " said Robert Lawrence,
associate dean at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of
Public Health and chair of the committee that wrote the report.

The report, "Dioxins and Dioxin-like Compounds in
the Food Supply: Strategies to Decrease Exposure," was requested by
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Food and Drug
Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The most direct way for humans to reduce dietary
exposure to dioxins, the report finds, is to reduce consumption of
animal fat. As dioxins are persistent and long lived compounds that
accumulate in human tissues over a lifetime, the panel recommends
that aggressive action be taken to reduce exposure in girls and
women.

This is the only practical way to reduce dioxin
exposure in fetuses and breast feeding infants, which are more
susceptible to the harmful effects of dioxins, the report finds.

Given the health and social benefits of breast-
feeding, the committee recommended strategies to reduce accumulated
body levels of dioxins, rather than to discourage breast-feeding.

The panel recommends the government examine the
levels of saturated fats in school lunch and breakfast programs,
which collectively provide mealst to more than 30 million children.
(Photo by Ken Hammond courtesy USDA)
The panel says the government-sponsored food
programs, such as the National School Lunch Program, should increase
the availability of foods low in animal fat. In particular, low-fat
milk should be made more widely available in the school lunch program
and the USDA should analyze the impact of setting limits on the
amount of saturated fat that can be present in meals served in the
school breakfast and lunch programs.
The committee calls for the promotion of compliance
with the Dietary Guidelines for American on the consumption of
saturated fats as a way to minimize dioxin exposure without
compromising nutrition.

"We are recommending that the current USDA
guidelines that call for 10 percent saturated fat and 30 percent
total fat be followed," Lawrence said.

The panel found that dietary changes to reduce
dioxin exposure may have additional benefit of reducing the risks of
cardiovascular disease and other health risks associated with
excessive consumption of saturated fat.

Because of the health benefits associated with
omega-3 fatty acids in fish and the difficulty of trimming fat from
fish, the committee did not recommend that people reduce their
consumption of fatty fish below the currently recommended two
servings per week.

Lawrence told reporters that "some of the same
guidelines that have been released to reduce our exposure to mercury
would apply" to setting limits on the intake of fish at the top of
the food chain.

The report recommends that an interagency group
make serious efforts to collect data on the actual levels and
distribution of dioxins in the food supply and calls for the
establishment of a nationwide data collection effort and a single
repository for data on dioxin levels in animal forage and feed.

Getting a handle on how, where and to what extent
dioxins get into animal feed "presents the greatest opportunity to
reduce dioxin levels in food," said committee member Michael Taylor,
senior fellow and director of the Risk Resource and Environmental
Management Division at Resources for the Future, a nonprofit
environmental think tank..

"A high priority should be placed on reducing
contamination of animal forage and feed," Taylor said, "and in
interrupting the recycling of dioxins that results from the use of
animal fat in animal feeds."

Until there is enough data to shed light on whether
there should be regulatory limits, the committee recommends the
interagency coordinating group engage the private and public sectors
on programs to reduce exposure in human foods and animal feed.

The committee says better data is needed of dioxin
levels in animal feed and human food. (Photo by Bill Tarpenning
courtesy USDA)
For example, federal agencies should work with food
producers to develop voluntary guidelines for animal feeding and food-
production practices that would minimize animals' exposure to
dioxins.
The panel says further improvements in analytical
tools and methods will enable researchers to better characterize any
possible risks associated with low-level exposure. The report
concludes that the "most pressing need is for the development of low
cost analytical methods to detect dioxins," Taylor said.

The current expense of $1,000 per sample is an
obstacle to collection of data need for comprehensive risk management
strategy, Taylor told reporters.

A positive sign, Lawrence says, is that dioxin
levels in the environment have declined dramatically in recent
decades - by as much as 76 percent since the 1970s, according to some
measurements.

The panelists available at today's press briefing
were unable to comment on Monday's release of toxics data by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency that indicated a 50 percent increase
in the total releases of dioxin and dioxin-like compounds in 2001
compared to 2000.

In Monday's prepared statement, the EPA wrote that
the overall long term trend is that levels of dioxin are decreasing
and suggests that the increase in 2001 was in part due to one time
maintenance at several facilities.

The full Institute of Medicine report on dioxins in
foods can be found here.








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