Market basket study on the dietary intake of organotin compounds in Finland

Panu Veikko Rantakokko (1) , Tiina Kuningas (1) , Katri Saastamoinen (1) , Terttu Vartiainen (1)

1 Department of Environmental Health

The objective of this study was to estimate the intake of organic tin compounds in foodstuffs in the Finnish market basket. The study was conducted by collecting thirteen market baskets from supermarkets and market places in the city of Kuopio, eastern Finland. Altogether 115 different food samples were bought. In each basket foodstuffs were mixed in proportion to their consumption and analysed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry for seven organic tin compounds (mono-, di-, and tributyltin, mono-, di-, and triphenyltin, and dioctyltin). Organotin compounds were detected in only four baskets, with the fish basket containing the largest number of different organotins. The European Food Safety Authority has established a tolerable daily intake of 250 ng/kg body weight for the sum of dibutyltin, tributyltin, triphenyltin, and dioctyltin. According to this study, the daily intake of these compounds was 2.47 ng/kg body weight, of which 81% originated from the market basket for fish. This exposure is only 1% of the tolerable daily intake and thus poses a negligible risk to the average consumer. However, for high fish consumers using fish from contaminated areas, the intake may be much higher.

Mots clés: Life Sciences

Panu Veikko Rantakokko, Tiina Kuningas, Katri Saastamoinen, Terttu Vartiainen. Market basket study on the dietary intake of organotin compounds in Finland. Food Additives and Contaminants, 2006, 23 (08), pp.749-756. ⟨10.1080/02652030600779908⟩. ⟨hal-00577488⟩