Dietary exposure of man to chlorinated benzenes in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Chlorinated benzenes are produced in large quantities on a world-wide basis. They are important industrial chemicals, chemical intermediates and components of the waste products of chemical synthesis. Their widespread occurrence and persistence, particularly in the case of the more highly chlorinated benzenes, has resulted in residues in food and human tissues. Information currently available about the levels of residues of these compounds in food has been summarised with particular reference to U.K. data. Estimation of average dietary intake is only possible for the most highly chlorinated compound, hexachlorobenzene, and is calculated to be 0.2 micrograms per person per day. Though insufficient data exist to assess dietary intake of other chlorinated benzenes in the U.K. it is considered unlikely that they would occur at levels greater than hexachlorobenzene in the diet.