Risk assessment of dioxins, furans, and dioxin-like PCBs in food in Norway. Scientific Opinion of the Panel on Contaminants of the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food and Environment

Academic article

Year of publication: 2022
Journal: VKM Report
External websites: Nasjonalt vitenarkiv
Involved from NIVA: Jonny Beyer
Contributors: Helle Katrine Knutsen, Heidi Amlund, Jonny Beyer, Barbara Alexandra Bukhvalova, Dagrun Engeset, Inger Therese Laugsand Lillegaard, Espen Mariussen, Gro Haarklou Mathisen, Anne Lise Brantsæter, Sara Bremer, Gunnar Sundstøl Eriksen, Ingunn Anita Samdal, Cathrine Thomsen Show all

Summary

Dioxins and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (dl-PCBs) are lipophilic chemicals with long half-lives in the environment. Dioxins include both polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDD) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDF). Several congeners of PCDDs and PCDFs may occur, with varying number and positions of chlorine atoms in the molecules. Seventeen of these congeners are relatively persistent in animals and humans and exert similar toxicity. A subgroup of 12 out of 209 possible polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners show toxicological properties similar to PCDDs/PCDFs, and this subgroup is termed dl-PCBs (EFSA et al., 2018).