Lord Lucasasked Her Majesty's Government:
What evidence has been published in the last three years as to the carcinogenicity of dioxins of the type, and at the concentrations, thought possibly to be present in Belgian food products recently withdrawn from the market. [HL3246]
§ Baroness HaymanThere are a number of compounds classed as "dioxins". The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC, 1997) and the Committee on Carcinogenicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COC, 1998) have reviewed the published evidence, from animal and human studies, for the carcinogenicity of 2, 3, 7, 8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), which is the most toxic of these compounds.
The COC concluded that it would be prudent to assume that TCDD is a probable weak human carcinogen. The IARC concluded that TCDD should be regarded as a human carcinogen.
There is no published evidence as to the human carcinogenicity of levels and types of the other "dioxins" which are thought to have predominated in contaminated Belgian foods.