Duplicate study on the dietary intake of PCDD/F by small children from Germany

The dietary intake of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/F) by 42 small children at the age of 14 to 47 months was measured by the duplicate method. The children were living in urban or rural areas of Northrhine-Westphalia, Germany, and had different food consumption behaviour. The duplicates were collected over a period of seven days between May and September 1998. The PCDD/F-levels in the food duplicates were in the range of 39.2 to 325 pg I-TEq/kgdryweight (median: 90.7; arithmetic mean: 96.6). The doses were between 0.681 and 5.43 pg I-TEq/(kgbodyweight day) with a median of 1.56 and an arithmetric mean of 1.60. The aspired limit of 1 pg I-TEq/(kgbodyweight . day) was exceeded by most children. Food duplicates of children living in an urban industrialized area with food consumption including products from the family owned vegetable gardens or the surrounding area and/or products from domestic animals showed no statistically significant different PCDD/F-concentrations, calculated as I-TEq, than food duplicates of children living in a rural area with similar food consumption behavior or than food duplicates of children consuming exclusively food from the supermarket. The same was observed for the calculated intake rates of PCDD/F. Efforts to reduce the contamination of food with PCDD/F should be continued. (orig.)