Mean exposure (95th percentile) to PCDD/F + DL-PCBs was assessed to be 0.57 (1.29) pg TEQWHO-98 (kg bw)鈭? d鈭? in the adult population and 0.89 (2.02) pg TEQWHO-98 (kg bw)鈭? d鈭? in the child and teenager population. Less than 4%of the population exceeded the health-based guidance value for PCDD/F + DL-PCBs. Mean exposure (95th percentile) to the six indicator PCBs (PCB 28, 52, 101, 138, 153, 180) was estimated at 2.71 (7.90) ng (kg bw)鈭? d鈭? in the adult population and 3.77 (11.7) ng (kg bw)鈭? d鈭? in the child and teenager population. Only 2.6%of the adults [CI95%: 1.9; 3.3] and 6.5%of the children and teenagers [5.2; 7.8] exceeded the health-based guidance value for total PCBs.
These results show that the contamination levels in food and therefore the exposure of the general French population to PCDD/Fs and PCBs have declined (by a factor of 3.2 for PCDD/F + DL-PCBs and about three for total PCBs) since the last evaluation, which was conducted using another methodology in 2005 and 2007, and show the efficiency of the European risk management measures which came into force after these evaluations.