Coal-fired electricity stations send dioxins into the air as the smoke is dispersed. Also, dioxins come from all types of factory wastes, commercial incineration, traffic pollution, industrial emissions, fires, and many other chemical and industrial processes. Tests show dioxins to be the most potent carcinogen known to man.
Research clearly shows that dioxins cause many serious diseases such as a kidney disease, birth defects, premature death, and a whole range of cancers.
Dioxins are very pervasive and get spread everywhere. They get carried by the weather, by rain and wind, and by ocean currents to all parts of the world. Dioxins then settle on land, pastures, and plants and become part of the food chain for animals and humans.
Although there is little we can do to escape dioxins altogether, we can minimize the amount that goes into our body by avoiding certain foods. Dioxins are found in equal measure in both organic and non-organic food. Dioxins do not come from pesticides or fertilizers – they come from the environment at large and even from the water supply.
Normally, our bodies cope with a low level of dioxins. Some dioxins get excreted instead of being absorbed into the body to cause illness. We can, to some extent reduce the amount of dioxins we get by avoiding foods high in dioxins.
So which food is highest in dioxins? Dairy milk is known to have a higher amount of dioxins than any other human food or drink, weight for weight. All female mammals produce milk for feeding to their young, including humans. Dioxins consumed by the mother get concentrated in her breast milk. This happens because all nutrients (including dioxins) get concentrated in the milk as a way of providing good nourishment to the baby.
This means human babies get concentrated dioxins from their mother’s milk. Mercifully, a baby stops breastfeeding after a few months so the level of dioxins received by the baby drops off. Also, human milk has a lower concentration of dioxins compared to dairy milk.
But for a milk consumer it’s a different story. Over time, the daily consumption of dairy milk results in a dangerous build up of dioxins in the body, causing below-par health, serious disease, and premature death.
There is plenty of research (too much to list here) showing that dairy milk has the highest concentration of dioxins compared to just about any other food product.
‘Dioxins penetrate the environment via air, water and soil and are then incorporated in food chains. The major source of human exposure to dioxins (90%) is consumption of .dairy products.’ (Professor Rocz Panstw, Zakl Hig, 1999, 50:3).
‘The primary source of dioxins is food, especially .dairy products.’ (Chemosphere, 1998 Oct, 37:9).
‘The lipophilic nature of dioxins.may result in relatively high concentrations of dioxin contamination in dairy products.’ (Journal of Animal Science, 1998 Jan, 76:1).
‘Cows’ milk is ideal for assessing levels because these compounds adhere to fat and are transferred to and eliminated in the milk of the lactating animal.’ (Linda Fitzpatrick, Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Environment, 2005).
Dairy milk of all kinds contain dioxins in varying degrees, including organic milk. The critical point here is that over eighty percent of organic milk sold in the world is UHT milk (i.e. Long Life milk). In most of Europe and the Americas virtually all organic milk is UHT milk.
With UHT milk you get far more dioxins than regular pasteurized milk because more dioxins gets digested instead of being excreted. This happens because the micronized fat globules in UHT milk are much smaller than in non-UHT milk. As a consequence, more dioxins from the milk get into the bloodstream. See below to find out more.
