Approach to risk assessment of chlorinated dioxins from Yusho PCB poisoning

A Japanese was estimated to ingest 3 and 11 pg/kg/day of TEQ from PCDD/PCDFs and coplanar PCBs respectively through foods. A Japanese baby was calculated to consume 100–530 pg/kg/day level of TEQ through breast milk feeding, more than 60 % being attributed to TEQ of coplanar PCBs. These intakes of TEQ were compared to the average (154 ng/kg/day) and minimum (28 ng/kg/day) intakes of Yusho, a PCB posioning occurred in Japan in 1968. There are three or four orders of magnitude difference between the daily TEQ intakes of general population and Yusho patients. However, the TEQ intakes by breast milk-fed babies of general population are at least 53 times less than the minimum intake of Yusho patients.