Dioxins are caused by incineration, traffic pollution, industrial waste emissions, fires, and many other chemical and industrial processes. Dioxins are known to be the most potent carcinogen ever tested.

Studies show that dioxins cause many serious diseases in humans, such as a range of cancers, kidney disease, birth defects, illness and premature death.

Unfortunately, dioxins are just about everywhere in nature because they get carried by weather patterns, rain, ocean currents, and wind to all parts of the globe. Dioxins settle on pastures, and on plants and grains that form 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.

The question is: which food is highest in dioxins? Weight for weight, dairy milk has by far the highest amount of dioxins than any other food or drink. All mammals produce milk for feeding to their babies (including humans). The dioxins in the mother’s body get concentrated in her breast milk. This occurs, because all nutrients (including dioxins) get concentrated in breast milk as a way of providing good rich nourishment to the new born.

This means babies get concentrated dioxins from their mother’s milk. Fortunately, a baby stops breastfeeding after a few months or a year so the level of dioxins received by the baby goes down. Also, human milk is known to have a lower concentration of dioxins compared to dairy milk.

For a milk consumer it’s a different story. The daily consumption of dairy milk will result 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).

All types of dairy milk contain dioxins in varying amounts, including organic milk. But over eighty percent of organic milk sold in the world is UHT milk (Long Life milk). In the Americas and most of Europe just about 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.