[Dioxin-l] dioxin in burgers

[david bell]

>Jon Campbell wrote
>
>"A single McDonalds hamburger has 100 picograms of
>dioxin in it, the EPA max dosage is 0.7 picograms for
>an ADULT."
>
>Pretty upsetting if true.  What's the source of this
>number?
>

A recent estimate of total CDD/CDF/PCB in burgers is 150 pg of TEQ per kg of 
burger. I guess a burger weighs 100-200 g, so maybe 15-30 pg/burger:
Citation: Schecter, A.; Papke, O.; Dellarco, M. 1997. Dioxin, dibenzofuran, 
and PCB congeners
in cooked and uncooked food. Presented at Dioxin ‘97, 17th International 
Symposium on
Chlorinated Dioxins and Related Compounds, held August 25-29 in 
Indianapolis, IN, USA. Short
paper in, Organohalogen Compounds, Volume 33:462-466.

This is available at:
http://www.epa.gov/ncea/docs/cooktemp.wpd

General information on food intake of dioxins is available at:

http://www.epa.gov/ncea/relpubs.htm#sources

Fair coverage of the amount of total dioxin in various foodstuffs is 
available at:
http://www.epa.gov/ncea/docs/food99.wpd

david bell
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