Dioxin Database – An Approach of Congener-Specific Data Analysis

Abstract

Dioxins and PCBs are persistent organic pollutants (POPs), a term used to designate organic chemicals that accumulate in the bodies of humans, animals and plants and that have the potential to be transported across long distances. POPs may cause disturbances of the immune system, nervous system, reproductive functions and enzyme systems, with all its consequences. It is very important to monitore the contamination of the environment, foodstaff and feeding staff with dioxins permanently. As a measure to counteract the risk posed by POPs to man and the environment, a number of international environmental treaties have been agreed to in the past. For the sake of public information about the contamination of man and the environment by POPs, the Federal Environment Agency collects data on the concentrations of dioxins and others POPs in the Federation and Laender cooperation Dioxin Information database www.pop-dioxindb.de. The data base includes a lot of metadata e.g. sampling site, sampling method, analysis method, laboratory data, and the analytic results with specific congeneres. An online site with information and evaluation of the data is available. On the other hand an directly request to the database is possible getting timetrendas and congenere profiles.