Incinérateurs, crise dioxine, et risques sanitaires pour la population belge

Abstract

Incinerators, dioxin crisis and health risks for the general population in Belgium. Bernard A., Fierens S., Mairesse H., C. Hermans, F. Broeckaert, J.-F. Focant, E. Depauw. Since a few years, there is some concern in Belgium about the potential health risks of dioxins emitted by municipal solid waste incinerators (MSWI) and more recently by the dioxins which were introduced in the food chain during the Belgian PCB incident. This communication reports studies which have been recently carried out to assess the possible health impact of dioxins in these two sit¬ uations. Dioxins (PCDDIFs ) were determined in the blood of 85 subjects living around two MSWI, one localized in an industrial area and the other in a rural area. By comparison with an age-matched control group of 27 subjects living in an unpolluted area, an increase of dioxin body burden (36,7 vs 24,3 pg TEQlg blood fat, 34 % on average) was found only in the vicinity of the MSWI in the rural area, most likely because of a higher consumption of locally produced foods around this incinerator. However, despite this increase, all subjects had dioxin levels still in the range of values reported in unpolluted areas in Europe. As to the dioxin crisis, the contamination was too limited in time and in the food chain to have caused adverse health effects in the general popula¬ tion of Belgium even if most contaminated foods (e.g. chicken meat) had dioxin levels more than 100 times above tolerance levels. Indeed, a doubling of the PCB and dioxin burden of the young adult population would have required the consumption of respectively 10 and 20 highly contaminated meals. In view of the very limited proportion of the food chain affected by the incident (less than 2% of poultry farms and of 0.1% of all farms in Bel¬ gium), such an extreme scenario was quite improbable at the pop¬ ulation level. It was conceivable only in farmers who could have consumed their own products. But even for these farmers, this would mean that their PCB and dioxin body burden would have been increased at levels of the 80s or of subjects regularly eating contaminated seafood.