Brussels, 25/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the European Commission adopted a two-part strategy aimed at reducing dioxins and PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) in the environment, in animal feed and in foodstuffs.
In order to reduce the human exposure to such highly toxic and persistent substances, it is above all important to reduce the levels of these substances in the food chain, as food consumption is the most important source of human exposure (more than 90% of total exposure). Furthermore, the best way to reduce the levels in the food chain is to reduce environmental contamination by avoiding new releases into the environment. To achieve these aims, the strategy consists of two parts: 1) The first: - identifies actions in the short-to-medium term (five years) and covers hazard identification, risk assessment, risk management, research, communication to the public and cooperation with third countries and international organisations; - and also identifies long term actions (10 years) covering data collection, monitoring and surveillance, which will provide a comprehensive picture of the environmental dioxin/PCB problem, and allow further policy making and evaluation. 2) The second: - proposes a strategy consisting of three pillars: - the establishment of maximum limits in food and feed; action levels that act as a tool for the early warning of higher than desirable levels of dioxin in food or feed, and target levels in food and feed. According to the Commission, these objectives must be reached in order to reduce the exposure levels, to which a large part of the European population is subjected, to lower than the tolerable intake levels established by the Scientific Committee for Food (14 picograms WHO-TEQ per kilo of body weight per week). Commenting on this second part, the European Commissioner responsible for consumer health and protection, David Byrne, stressed the importance of establishing "strict maximum limits for dioxins in food and feed", which, he said, "I expect the Health Council on 15th November will endorse. The implementation of these strict limits from 1 January next will provide additional protection to European consumers from the long-term effects of dioxin consumption".