From
Associated Press 7/1/03 Women Warned About Dioxin
Residues in Meat & Dairy
WASHINGTON,
July 1
The government should teach women and girls to eat less of
the fats found in meat, poultry, fatty fish and whole milk
years before they become pregnant to protect their offspring
from harmful dioxins, a scientific panel recommended Tuesday.
In Its report, the Institute of Medicine, part of the National
Academy of Sciences, suggested the government encourage women
and others to stick to the national dietary guidelines to
reduce their fat intake and limit their exposure to dioxins,
or DLCs, amid concerns that the pollutants are passed on to
fetuses and infants through the placenta and breast milk.
"Perhaps the most direct way for an individual or a population
to reduce dietary intake of DLCs is to reduce their consumption
of dietary fat, especially from animal sources that are known
to contain higher levels of these compounds," the scientists
wrote.
COST
OBSTACLE
However,
they wouldn't advise what levels are considered dangerous
because current tests for checking dioxins in food are too
expensive, costing about $1,000 each, said Robert Lawrence,
the chair of the panel. "We refrained from setting any
risk tolerance limits or mandatory cutoff points for dioxins
in the food supply because it would have been cost prohibitive
with current methods," said Lawrence, an associate dean
of the Bloomberg School or Public Health at Johns Hopkins
University. Dioxins, or DLCs, are pollutants found throughout
the soil, water and air. They can occur naturally for example,
when a forest burns. But they also are produced when industrial
materials are incinerated.
They build up in fatty tissues in animals, so scientists believe
that humans are exposed to them primarily when they eat animal
fats. Unborn children and breast-feeding infants are especially
vulnerable to the harmful effects, which can range from behavioral
disorders to cancer.
WIDE-RANGING
ADVICE
The
panel noted that some American Indian tribes and indigenous
groups in Canada also are at risk because they frequently
eat fish and wild game, exposing them to higher levels of
dioxins than on average. The panel also suggested that the
Agriculture Department provide schools in the federal lunch
program with low-fat and skim milk to help children reduce
their exposure to dioxins. The current law for the national
school lunch program, which feeds 28 million children, favors
whole milk, although nutritionists have said that drinking
it regularly can contribute to heart disease. The panel also
called for the government to: Partner up with food manufacturers
and farmers and make a plan that will curb dioxin levels in
food. Take steps to reduce the prevalence of dioxins in animal
feed and grasses so that they'll be less apparent in animals.
Create a database to track exposure and do more studies on
the effects of dioxins on breast-feeding infants and unborn
children. The full Institute of Medicine report is online
at www.nas.edu.
EPA ON DIOXIN, OTHER TOXINS
The institute report comes a day after the Environmental Protection
Agency reported that dioxin levels increased to 328 pounds
in 2001, up from 220 pounds the year earlier. However, levels
have declined by 76 percent since the 1970s. The EPA added
that overall the amount of toxic chemicals released into the
environment declined 13 percent in 2001. Some 6.16 billion
pounds were released that year, down from 7.1 billion pounds
a year earlier, the EPA reported. "The good news is that
overall pollution has declined," said Jeremiah Baumann,
an environmental health specialist for U.S. Public Interest
Research Group."But the bad news," he said referring
to dioxins and lead, "is that for some of the most toxic
chemicals, we're seeing more, not less pollution."
Hard-rock mining companies and coal-burning power plants repeated
their status as the biggest polluters. EPA's Toxics Release
Inventory, created under 1986 law, includes information on
more than 650 toxic chemicals. Linda Fisher, EPA's acting
administrator, said the inventory is one of the most important
things EPA does. People can now see figures mapped by state
and county on the Internet, she said.
By chemical, the most pollution came from copper and zinc
compounds, hydrochloric acid, and lead, manganese, arsenic,
nitrate and barium compounds. Sixty-nine percent of the chemicals
went into the land, 27 percent into the air and 4 percent
into the water. EPA required facilities to provide data if
they used or produced more than 100 pounds of lead; previously,
they did so if they used more than 10,000 pounds or produced
more than 25,000 pounds. Lead releases in 2001 increased to
443 million pounds, up from 374 million pounds in 2000. Because
of the change in how lead was tallied, EPA calculated that
if lead is taken out of the picture the total amount of all
other toxic chemicals released into the environment in 2001
was 15.5 percent less than in 2000. The EPA data is online
at www.epa.gov/tri.
