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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Persistent environmental contaminants and the Great Lakes Basin population: An exposure assessment

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:339648

The report describes the assessments of human exposure to 11 priority contaminants identified in the 1994 Canada-Ontario Agreement Respecting the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem. The contaminants (including organochlorine pesticides, mercury, toxaphene, polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins and furans, benzo(a)pyrene, and octachlorostyrene) were selected because of their prevalence in the ecosystem, their environmental persistence, and their potential to cause harm to the environment and to human health. The assessments incorporate exposures of the population to persistent contaminants through the ingestion of food and water, the incidental ingestion of soil and house dust, and the inhalation of ambient and indoor air. They establish a Canadian baseline against which exposures of specific groups within the Great Lakes Basin and populations in other regions can be compared. Provisional tolerable daily intake levels for the contaminants are also estimated.

Research Organization:
Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario (Canada)
OSTI ID:
339648
Report Number(s):
MIC--98-07252/XAB; SSC-H--46-2/98-218E
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English