| Title: |
Dioxin pollution in the Baltic Sea - what have we learned?
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| Resource Type: |
document --> technical publication --> proceedings / conference paper(s)
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| Country: |
EU Projects
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| Year of publication: |
2003 |
| Availability: |
Jensen, A. A. (2003) Dioxin pollution in the Baltic Sea - what have we learned ? Persistent Toxic Substances Contamination of the European Region as a reflection of results of the GEF/UNEP Regional Based Assessment of Persistent Toxic Substances (RBA PTS) in Europe, the implementation of the Stockholm Convention and 'Community Strategy for Dioxins, Furans and PCBs'
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| Author 1/Producer: |
Jensen, A. A.
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| Author / Producer Type: |
EC Project
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| Format (e.g. PDF): |
PDF
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EUGRIS Keyword(s): |
Diffuse pollution-->Contaminants-->Persistent Organic Pollutants
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| Short description: |
Dioxins are organochlorine substances, which are extremely hazardous in the environment. It is very stable, lipophilic and persistent chemicals, which in spite of low volatility are widespread in the global environment and the highest levels occur associated in fats. Their toxicity includes both acute toxicity and chronic effects such as cancer and reproductive effects. “Dioxin” is a short name for polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDD) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDF). There are in total 210 different members of the dioxin family called congeners. Specifically the 17 dioxins with 2,3,7,8-chlorine substitution are the most toxic and bioaccumulating and most abundant in animal and humans. The most toxic is 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) or the Seveso-dioxin. In order to aggregate the results for the various congeners in a sample and get a total dioxin content, some international systems for calculating dioxin toxicity equivalence (TEQ) have been developed. All these systems are based on a relative ranking system giving the congeners toxicity equivalence factors (TEF) with TCDD assigned the factor 1. The newest system (WHO-TEF) was recommended by a WHO Working Group.
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Submitted By:
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Dr Stefan Gödeke WhoDoesWhat?
Last update: 14/02/2006
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