Japanese Govt sets safety guideline for tap-water dioxin levels

[John Visher <visherjc@crisscross.com>]

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/index-e.htm


     November 18, 1999


                Govt sets safety guideline for tap-water dioxin levels

                Yomiuri Shimbun

                The Health and Welfare Ministry on Tuesday set a
provisional standard for
                safety guidelines on dioxin contamination of tap water
for the Tokyo
                metropolitan and prefectural governments to plan water
quality control.

                The standard is the first of its kind for tap water. The
ministry's Living
                Environment Council committee in charge of water issues
decided the
                standard of one picogram of dioxin per liter of tap
water based on the
                government standard for the tolerable daily intake (TDI)
of no more than
                four picograms per kilogram of body weight, which was
set in June. The
                TDI is the maximum daily level considered safe for
ingestion during the
                course of a lifetime.

                The committee calculated the standard based on the
assumption that a
                person consumes 1 percent of dioxin intake from tap
water, and an adult
                who weighs 50 kilograms consumes two liters of tap water
present in
                prepared food and drink a day.

                Although local governments are not obliged to follow the
standard, which is
                different from compulsory water quality standards, it is
expected to be used
                as a guideline for creating water quality control plans.





             Copyright 1999 The Yomiuri Shimbun