Environmental Health Risk Assessment of Dioxin Exposure through Foods in a Dioxin Hot Spot—Bien Hoa City, Vietnam

Tran Thi Tuyet-Hanh, Le Vu-Anh, Nguyen Ngoc-Bich and Thomas Tenkate
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Tran Thi Tuyet-Hanh: Hanoi School of Public Health, Hanoi, Vietnam
Le Vu-Anh: Hanoi School of Public Health, Hanoi, Vietnam
Nguyen Ngoc-Bich: Vietnam Public Health Association, Hanoi, Vietnam
Thomas Tenkate: School of Public Health, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

IJERPH, 2010, vol. 7, issue 5, 1-12

Abstract: This study used the Australian Environmental Health Risk Assessment Framework to assess the human health risk of dioxin exposure through foods for local residents in two wards of Bien Hoa City, Vietnam. These wards are known hot-spots for dioxin and a range of stakeholders from central government to local levels were involved in this process. Publications on dioxin characteristics and toxicity were reviewed and dioxin concentrations in local soil, mud, foods, milk and blood samples were used as data for this risk assessment. A food frequency survey of 400 randomly selected households in these wards was conducted to provide data for exposure assessment. Results showed that local residents who had consumed locally cultivated foods, especially fresh water fish and bottom-feeding fish, free-ranging chicken, duck, and beef were at a very high risk, with their daily dioxin intake far exceeding the tolerable daily intake recommended by the WHO. Based on the results of this assessment, a multifaceted risk management program was developed and has been recognized as the first public health program ever to have been implemented in Vietnam to reduce the risks of dioxin exposure at dioxin hot-spots.

Keywords: environmental health risk assessment; dioxin; Bien Hoa; Vietnam (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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