Assessment of regional dietary exposure to dioxins in seafood in Japan

This paper presents a method of estimating dietary exposure to dioxins in specific region from monitoring data of dioxins concentration in seafood by catching area and information of seafood circulation. Monte-Carlo method was applied to take into account both the uncertainty of measured value of dioxins levels in fishes and variability between fish species. The seafood circulation was simulated with a linear programming (LP) model. Dietary exposure to dioxins in seafood in seven regions in Japan was estimated and compared with the results of Total Dietary Studies (TDS). No significant geographical variability of dietary exposure to dioxins in seafood was observed for general population in Japan.