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        INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMME ON CHEMICAL SAFETY

        WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION



        TOXICOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF CERTAIN
        FOOD ADDITIVES AND CONTAMINANTS



        WHO FOOD ADDITIVES SERIES 24





        Prepared by:
        The 33rd meeting of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert
        Committee on Food Additives (JECFA)

        Geneva, 21 - 30 March 1989

        World Health Organization, Geneva 1989


        The International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS) is a
    joint venture of the United Nations Environment Programme, the
    International Labour Organisation, and the World Health Organization.
    The main objective of the IPCS is to carry out and disseminate
    evaluations of the effects of chemicals on human health and the
    quality of the environment.  Supporting activities include the
    development of epidemiological, experimental laboratory, and
    risk-assessment methods that could produce internationally comparable
    results, and the development of manpower in the field of toxicology.
    Other activities carried out by the IPCS include the development of
    know-how for coping with chemical accidents, coordination of
    laboratory testing and epidemiological studies, and promotion of
    research on the mechanisms of the biological action of chemicals.



    (c) World Health Organization 1989



    Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data available

    British Library cataloguing in publication data available



    ISBN 0 521 38894 5



    The preparation of this document was supported by the International
    Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS), Geneva, Switzerland
    
    CONTENTS

   Preface

    Antioxidant
         Butylated hydroxyanisole

    Flour-treatment agent
         Potassium bromate

    Food colour
         Erythrosine

    Sweetening agent
         Trichlorogalactosucrose

    Thickening agent
         Karaya gum

    Contaminants
         Aluminium
         Arsenic
         Cadmium
         Bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate
         Iodine
         Methylmercury
         Tin

    Annexes

         Annex 1   Reports and other documents resulting from previous
                   meetings of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on
                   Food Additives
         Annex 2   Abbreviations used in the monographs
         Annex 3   1988 JECFA participants
         Annex 4   Acceptable daily intakes, other toxicological
                   recommendations and information on specifications

    Corrigenda to WHO Food Additives Series 22
    

    PREFACE

         The monographs contained in this volume were prepared by the
    thirty-third Joint FAO/WHO Export Committee on Food Additives (JECFA),
    which met in Geneva, Switzerland, 21-30 March 1988. These monographs
    summarize the safety data on selected food additives and contaminants
    reviewed by the Committee. The data reviewed in these monographs form
    the basis for acceptable daily intakes (ADIs) established by the
    Committee.

         The thirty third report of JECFA has been published by the World
    Health Organization in the WHO Technical Report Series (No. 776). The
    participants in the meeting are listed in Annex 3 of the present
    publication and a summary of the conclusions of the Committee is
    included as Annex 4.

         Specifications established at the thirty-third meeting of JECFA
    will be issued separately by FAO under the title, Specifications for
    the identity and purity of certain food additives in the FAO Food and
    Nutrition Paper Series. These toxicological monographs should be read
    in conjunction with the specifications and the report.

         Reports and other documents resulting from previous meetings of
    the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives are listed in
    Annex 1.

         JECFA serves as a scientific advisory body to FAO, WHO, their
    Member States, and the Codex Alimentarius Commission, primarily
    through the Codex Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants
    regarding the safety of food additives and contaminants in food.
    Committees accomplish this task by preparing reports of their meetings
    and publishing specifications and toxicological monographs, such as
    those contained in this volume, on substances that they have
    considered.

         The toxicological monographs contained in this volume are based
    upon working papers that were prepared by temporary advisers in
    advance of the 1988 JECFA meeting. A special acknowledgement is given
    to those who prepared these working papers, Dr C.L. Galli, Professor
    of Experimental Toxicology, University of Milan, Italy; Dr Ronald
    Walker, Professor of Biochemistry, University of Surrey, Guildford,
    Surrey, England; Drs Ronald Moch; D. Aub; D. Benz; and K. Adelman,
    Division of Toxicology, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition,
    Food and Drug Administration, Washington, DC, USA; Drs M.T. Lo, S.M.
    Charbonneau and Dr D.L. Grant Bureau of Chemical Safety, Foods
    Directorate, Health and Welfare Canada, Ottawa, Canada.

         Many proprietary unpublished reports are referenced. These were
    voluntarily submitted to the Committee by various producers of the
    food additives under review and in many cases these reports represent
    the only safety data available on these substances. The temporary
    advisers based the working papers they developed on all the data that
    were submitted, and all these studies were available to the Committee
    when it made its evaluations.

         From 1972 to 1975 the toxicology monographs prepared by Joint
    FAO/WHO Expert Committees on Food Additives were published in the WHO
    Food Additives Series; after 1975 this series became available only in
    the form of unpublished WHO documents provided upon request by the
    Organization. Beginning with the 1985 monographs, they are published
    by the Cambridge University Press, which should ensure that these
    monographs are more widely known and available.

         The preparation and editing of the monographs included in this
    volume have been made possible through the technical and financial
    contributions of the Participating Institutions of the International
    Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS), which support the activities of
    JECFA. IPCS is a joint venture of the United Nations Environment
    Programme, the International Labour Organization, and the World Health
    Organization, which is the executing agency. One of the main
    objectives of the IPCS is to carry out and disseminate evaluations of
    the effects of chemicals on human health and the quality of the
    environment.

         The designations employed and the presentation of the material in
    this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever
    on the part of the organizations participating in the IPCS concerning
    the legal status of any country, territory, city, or area or its
    authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or
    boundaries. The mention of specific companies or of certain
    manufacturers' products does not imply that they are endorsed or
    recommended by those organizations in preference to others of a
    similar nature that are not mentioned.

         Any comments or new information on the biological or
    toxicological data on the compounds reported in this document should
    be addressed to: Joint WHO Secretary of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert
    Committee on Food Additives, International Programme on Chemical
    Safety, World Health Organization, Avenue Appia, 1211 Geneva 27,
    Switzerland.




























    See Also:
       Toxicological Abbreviations