Exposure of the population of the Slovak Republic to dietary polychlorinated biphenyls

The aim of this paper has been to assess the exposure of the Slovak Republic population to polychlorinated biphenyls from food within 1994–2004. A total of 61 167 samples of food of animal origin, including fats, were analyzed for the content of six PCB congeners (the sum of: PCB-28, PCB-52, PCB-101, PCB-138, PCB-153 and PCB-180); the commodities were divided into 48 basic groups. The exposure dose values based on actual and model consumption were calculated for an average inhabitant as well as for children of various age groups, and compared with the Tolerable Daily Intake value (TDI; 0.4 μg kg−1 body weight per day). Knowledge and experience from a variety of projects running since 1991, as well as the database of food contaminants of the Centre for Evaluation of Contaminant Occurrence established at the Food Research Institute were utilized. The results of the evaluation suggested, that during the period of observation, the exposure of the Slovak Republic population to PCBs was relatively low. Taking actual consumption and mean findings as the basis, the daily exposure doses of PCBs ranged between 3.1% and 6.5% TDI, the corresponding figures for median value and the 95th percentile being between 1.4% and 4.0%, and between 7.5% and 20.0%, respectively.