EDC_3_DIOXINS

-
Hi Folks!! Follow our blog on Instagram 

Dioxins are environmental pollutants. They belong to the so-called dirty dozen – a group of dangerous chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Dioxins are of concern because of their highly toxic potential.

More than 90% of human exposure is through food, mainly meat and dairy products, fish and shellfish. Many national authorities have programmes in place to monitor the food supply.Dioxins are highly toxic and can cause reproductive and developmental problems, damage the immune system, interfere with hormones and cause cancer.
Dioxins are mainly by-products of industrial processes but can also result from natural processes, such as volcanic eruptions and forest fires. They are unwanted by-products of many manufacturing processes including smelting, chlorine bleaching of paper pulp and the manufacture of some herbicides and pesticides. Uncontrolled waste incinerators (solid waste and hospital waste) are often the worst culprits of environmental release due to incomplete burning
The highest levels are found in some soils, sediments and food, especially dairy products, meat, fish and shellfish.Very low levels are found in plants, water and air.

The toxicity among them varies 30,000-fold. They are grouped together because their mechanism of action is the same. They activate the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AH receptor), albeit with very different binding affinities, leading to high differences in toxicity and other effects. They include:

  • Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), are derivatives of dibenzo-p-dioxin. There are 75 PCDD congeners, differing in the number and location of chlorine atoms, and 7 of them are specifically toxic, the most toxic being 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin (TCDD).
  • Polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), or furans. PCDFs are derivatives of dibenzofuran. There are 135 isomers; 10 have dioxin-like properties.
  • Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), derived from biphenyl, of which 12 are dioxin-like. Under certain conditions PCBs may form dibenzofurans through partial oxidation.
  • Polybrominated analogs of the above classes may have similar effects.
  • "Dioxin" can also refer to 1,4-dioxin or p-dioxin, the basic chemical unit of the more complex dioxins. This simple compound is not persistent and has no PCDD-like toxicity.

Prevention:

Proper incineration of contaminated material is the best available method of preventing and controlling exposure to dioxins. It can also destroy PCB-based waste oils. The incineration process requires temperatures over 850 °C. For the destruction of large amounts of contaminated material, temperatures of 1000 °C or more are required.
Prevention or reduction of human exposure is best done via source-directed measures, i.e. strict control of industrial processes to reduce formation of dioxins as much as possible.The Codex Alimentarius Commission adopted a Code of Practice for Source Directed Measures to Reduce Contamination of Foods with Chemicals (CAC/RCP 49-2001) in 2001. In 2006 a Code of Practice for the Prevention and Reduction of Dioxin and Dioxin-like PCB Contamination in Food and Feeds (CAC/RCP 62-2006) was adopted.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

China's First ever CRISPR Cas9 system Patent!

-
Image
Hi Folks!! Follow our blog on  Instagram China’s patent and trademark office has upheld a key patent within the portfolio of CRISPR/Cas9 intellectual property belonging to Nobel Laureate Emmanuelle Charpentier, The Regents of the University of California, and University of Vienna (known collectively as CVC), and licensed for commercial use through ERS Genomics. Dublin-based ERS Genomics said the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) has upheld Patent No. CN201380038920.6, “Methods and Compositions for RNA-guided Target DNA Modification and for RNA-guided Transcription Regulation”. ToolGen claims that it was the  world’s first  filer of patents covering gene editing in eukaryotic cells using the CRISPR-Cas9 system. “The decision by the CNIPA fully upholding the patent further demonstrates its validity and value as part of the patent collection for use of the CRISPR/Cas9 technology,” ERS Genomics stated in announcing the Chinese decision recently. The CVC patents ha
Read more

XPOSAT - STUDY ABOUT BLACKHOLE(A GIST)

-
Image
Hi Folks!! Follow our blog on Instagram  LAB IN THE BOX XPOSAT - STUDY ABOUT BLACKHOLE (A GIST) Last year was a huge success with Chandrayaan-3. Our ISRO Scientist did a lot of unexpected acts and surprised us all. On January 1st, when this year started, India has proved to be a leading country in the world, not only on land, but also in the sky.  There are a lot of things in our universe that we don't understand. One thing that we don't understand is black holes. These black holes exist in a lot of places in space. From the fact that we are in a black hole, to the fact that all the earth and sun will disappear one day in a black hole, this is something that we don't understand. From the biggest scientist to the modern technology scientist, everyone is looking at this black hole as a mystery. To study this, India has launched a special Mission on January 1st named XPoSat( X-ray Polarimeter Satellite). On January 1st, India launched 10 different satellites throug
Read more

History of Biotechnology

-
Image
HISTORY OF BIOTECHNOLOGY: People have been harnessing biological processes to improve their quality of life for some 10,000 years, beginning with the first agricultural communities. Approximately 6,000 years ago, humans began to tap the biological processes of microorganisms in order to make bread, alcoholic beverages, and cheese and to preserve dairy products. But such processes are not what is meant today by biotechnology, a term first widely applied to the molecular and cellular technologies that began to emerge in the 1960s and ’70s. A fledgling “biotech” industry began to coalesce in the mid- to late 1970s, led by Genentech, a pharmaceutical company established in 1976 by Robert A. Swanson and Herbert W. Boyer to commercialize the recombinant DNA technology pioneered by Boyer, Paul Berg, and Stanley N. Cohen. Early companies such as Genentech, Amgen, Biogen, Cetus, and Genex began by manufacturing genetically engineered substances primarily for medical and environmental uses. For
Read more