A Pioneer in Dioxins Detection
Detecting one part out of 1,000 billion is not the limit
To protect human health, understanding the levels of dioxins in the environment and the food chain is imperative. Eurofins is at the forefront of global efforts to limit our exposure to dozens of dangerous chemicals.
Dioxins and the similar polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are persistent organic pollutants (POPs) – toxic chemicals that persist in the environment and accumulate in the food chain. Even at the level of 1/1,000,000,000 to 1/1,000,000 of a gram, they are considered to pose a serious hazard to humans and the environment. National and international treaties and directives have been passed to minimise or stop their circulation.
A Eurofins company has led the way in testing and analysis to aid understanding of the levels of POPs to which we are exposed. In 1985, the company was one of the first to start dioxin analysis and, by 2010, became the very first laboratory in Europe able to test for all the POPs identified in the 2001 Stockholm Convention including full analysis of all 209 PCBs with maximum possible separations within one method. This is of particular importance for the fish oil industry, as PCBs and dioxins are lipophilic (soluble in fat, not water), therefore accumulating in fat and oil over the food chain.
Dioxin analysis is important across a variety of different matrices, including food and feed, human blood and tissues, animals, plants, air, industrial products, residues, sludge, and water. Eurofins companies analyse all of these. However, dioxin analysis is extremely difficult and the requirement for the detection of very low substance levels (one part out of 1,000 billion others) and the distinction of each substance among the very similar dioxin and PCB molecules necessitates the use of highly advanced equipment. Eurofins laboratories are amongst the world leaders regarding full process automation, method development and advances in gas chromatography and mass spectrometry in order to make this type of analysis reliable and helpful for hazard control as well as scientific research. Extraordinary investment in research and development has helped Eurofins achieve a market leading position globally, and the laboratories now analyse over 100,000 dioxin samples per year, performing the highest throughputs worldwide. Eurofins has released almost 400 publications on dioxins and POPs testing to date.
One of the sources of dioxins can be waste incinerators. These burn substances containing chlorine at high temperatures, creating the conditions for dioxin formation. For this reason, emission gases are sampled and analysed to ensure that industrial emissions are as low as required and the respective gas cleaning equipment is functioning properly. Eurofins companies are world leaders in the area of sampling and analysis of emission gases, including analysis of the equally toxic brominated dioxins.
The science behind
Generally, POPs are substances containing chlorine, fluorine or bromine within their molecules. One of the most typical examples are PCBs. These are a class of chlorinated aromatic hydrocarbons which consist of 209 individual components. They started being commercially produced in 1929 but were recognised to be harmful in the 1970s and have since been banned or severely restricted. It is estimated that around two million tons of PCBs have been produced, about 10% of which still remain in the environment today. Twelve of the PCBs are similar, in terms of molecular biological behaviour, to dioxins and are known as dioxin-like PCBs.
