Japanese researchers have found high concentrations of accumulated dioxin in whale and dolphin meat sold in Japan, according to a report submitted to an international whaling meeting that opened Monday in Adelaide, Australia.
The report submitted to the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission says that researchers headed by Koichi Haraguchi, associate professor at Daiichi University, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Fukuoka, detected dioxin levels up to 172 times the tolerable daily intake in marketed whale and dolphin meat.
Haraguchi's team examined levels of dioxin as well as dibenzofuran and coplanar polychlorinated biphenyl, which have a toxicity similar to that of dioxin, in 38 types of whale and dolphin meat that were sold in Japan last year and earlier this year.