What is dioxin and how harmful is it?

Dioxin, also known as dioxin (qǐ), is a colorless, odorless and highly toxic fat-soluble substance. Dioxin is actually the abbreviation of dioxin, which refers to two organic compounds with similar structures and properties, including many homologues or isomers. Dioxins, including 2 10 compounds, are very stable, have a high melting point, are extremely insoluble in water, can be dissolved in most organic solvents, and are colorless and odorless fat-soluble substances, so they can easily accumulate in organisms and cause serious harm to human bodies.

Main hazards:

1. The main ways to enter the human body are respiratory tract, skin and digestive tract. It can cause serious skin injury diseases, has strong carcinogenic and teratogenic effects, and also has reproductive toxicity, immunotoxicity and endocrine toxicity.

2. If the human body is exposed to high concentrations of dioxins for a short time, it may cause skin damage, such as chloracne and skin dark spots, and changes in liver function. If exposed for a long time, it will damage the immune system, developmental nervous system, endocrine system and reproductive function. Studies have shown that the cancer mortality rate of workers exposed to high concentrations of dioxins is 60% higher than that of the general population.

The most sensitive consequences of dioxins entering human body include: abnormal odor of endometrium, behavioral development effect of nervous system (recognition), reproductive systemic development effect (sperm number, female genitourinary system malformation) and immunotoxic effect.

Preventive measures at present, it is difficult to treat dioxins as substances that are pollution-free to the environment and human beings. Although other methods are still under study, incineration is still the most feasible method, which requires high temperature above 850 degrees. In order to eliminate a large number of pollutants, sometimes even the temperature of 1000 degrees or even higher is needed.

In order to reduce the harm of dioxins to human health, the most fundamental measure is to control the emission of dioxins in the environment, thus reducing their silence in the food chain. In the past decade, the measures taken by many developed countries to control dioxin emissions have greatly reduced dioxin exposure. Since 90% people are accidentally exposed to dioxins through diet, ensuring food supply is a very critical link. Food contamination can occur at any stage from farm to table. Ensuring food safety is a continuous process from production to consumption. In the initial process of production, processing, distribution and sales, good control and operation norms are very important for the production of safe food. The food pollution monitoring system must ensure that dioxin does not exceed the prescribed allowable amount. Once a pollution incident is suspected, the state should take emergency measures to identify, detain and dispose of those unsafe foods. For exposed people, check the degree and influence of exposure.