§ Mr. CatonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what assessment he has made of the revised World Health Organisation tolerable daily intake for dioxins (1–4 pg TEQ/Kw bw day). [87843]
§ Mr. MealeThe Department of Health Advisory Committee on the Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT) has not yet had the opportunity to review the data used by the recent WHO consultation which recommended the Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) for dioxins of 1–4 pg TEQ/kg bw/day. Therefore this TDI has not been adopted formally by the Government. The COT will undertake a review when a full report of the consultation is available. In the interim, current exposure data will be considered using both the current UK TDI (10 pg TEQ/kg bw/day) and the recently recommended WHO TDI.