Dr. Vincent Cogliano is one of the worldâs top experts on the subject of chemical carcinogenesis. He is employed by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) working in the Monographs Division, which produces reviews of the carcinogenicity of chemical substances. Dr. Cogliano states that based upon the quantitative risk characterization set forth in the draft US EPA dioxin reassessment the total cancer burden imposed by dioxin exposure of the US population due to consumption of contaminated animal fat foods is one thousandth of the US population. One thousandth of the US population of 308 million is 308,000, approximately 308,000 American lives lost to cancer during the next 70 years due to dioxin exposure. We discuss the importance of reevaluating dioxin pursuant to lowering the World Health Organizationâs Provisional Tolerable Monthly Intake (PTMI) for dioxins due to the magnitude of dioxin exposure cancer risk. The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) is charged with developing food safety standards such as the WHO Provisional Tolerable Monthly Intake. JECFA established the WHO PTMI in 2001. Dioxin is not listed for reevaluation on the agenda of the upcoming JECFA meeting which will take place in Geneva, Switzerland in June of 2010. Numerous scientific research articles have been published in the peer reviewed literature since 2001, supporting the conclusion that the existing PTMI is not protective against dioxin exposure cancer risk. In order to limit cancer deaths to the one in a million excess cancer deaths traditionally used as a standard in the United States, the PTMI would have to be reduced by three orders of magnitude. This simply means that as stated above, dioxin exposure cancer risk is approximately one in one thousand for the US population; the PTMI is currently set at the level of exposure which now exists. The PTMI was established for the purpose of creating the illusion that dioxin contamination at current levels was not imposing unacceptable disease outcomes. The science of dioxin exposure cancer risk supports the position that consumption of animal fat imposes far more than an acceptable amount of cancer risk.
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