Polychlorinated dioxin and dibenzofuran levels in the environment and food from the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia

The paper summarises systematic 5-year monitoring of the environment, drinking water and food for PCDDs and PCDFs levels in industrial centres and in rural areas of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia. It also presents selected data on dioxin concentrations in gas emissions of toxic waste incinerators at chemical plants. The paper gives a comparative analysis of PCDDs/PCDFs daily intake by the population of industrial cities for Bashkortostan and for industrial countries of Europe and North America. The results show that PCDDs/PCDFs levels in the environment, drinking water and food in Bashkortostan are approximately equal to those in other industrial countries.