Health Outcomes

Health Outcome List:

• Not available

Environmental Agents

List of Environmental Agents:

• Chlorinated compounds (polychlorinated dibenzodioxins, polychlorinated dibenzofurans)

Source of Environmental Agents:

• Dairy products (milk)

Economic Evaluation / Methods and Source

Type:

• Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA)

Cost Measures:

• Monitoring costs (includes costs related to sampling, testing, labor for personnel, materials/equipment, transport, and storage)
• incident costs (includes costs related to tracing the source and concentration of dioxins through sampling and testing of suspected sources of contamination (trucks or farms))
• screening test costs
• confirmatory test costs

Potential Cost Measures:

• Losses of dairy farms or dairy processors related to mitigation strategies emplaced after an incident has been detected, such as cost of destroying contaminated milk
• direct financial costs for implementation of mitigation strategies
• costs of monitoring for government, industries, and consumers

Benefits Measures:

• Reduced monitoring costs
• increased effectiveness of monitoring

Potential Benefits Measures:

• Benefits of monitoring for government, industries, and consumers

Location:

• European Union (hypothetical region (Dutch))

Models Used:

• Authors developed two optimization models using a linear programming methodology — MC optimization model (aimed at minimizing monitoring costs)
• ME optimization model (aimed at maximizing effectiveness of monitoring)

Models References:

• References cited in publication — linear programming methodology (Rushton et al., 2009, Dijkhuizen and Morris, 1997)

Methods Used:

• The authors estimated the costs and effectiveness of bulk milk dioxin monitoring in milk trucks to optimize sampling and pooling monitoring strategies aimed at detecting at least 1 out of 20,000 contaminated dairy farms at a target dioxin concentration level. The authors — 1) used a linear programming methodology to build two optimization models (MC and ME); 2) used the optimization models to evaluate a bulk milk dioxin monitoring plan in milk trucks covering 20,000 dairy farms located in an area of 40,000 km2, and randomly selected milk trucks at each sampling time; and 3) applied the optimization models to 8 preselected contamination scenarios representing different detectable incidents.

Sources Used:

• Results of the monitoring of dioxin level in food and feed (European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), 2010); Animal Health Economics, Principles and Applications, 1st Ed. (Dijkhuizen and Morris, 1997); Kaolinic clay derived PCDD/Fs in the feed chain from a sorting process for potatoes (Hoogenboom et al., 2010); Council Regulation (EC) No 2375/2001 of 29 November 2001 amending Commission Regulation (EC) No 466/2001 setting maximum levels for certain contaminants in foodstuffs (European Commission, 2001c); Commission Recommendation 2006/88/EC of 6 February 2006 on the reduction of the presence of dioxins, furans, and PCBs in feeding stuffs and foodstuffs (European Commission, 2006a); Commission Regulation (EC) no 1883/2006 of 19 December 2006 laying down methods of sampling and analysis for the official control of levels of dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs in certain foodstuffs (European Commission, 2006b); additional sources cited in publication

Economic Citation / Fundings

Citation:

• Lascano-Alcoser VH, Velthuis AG, Van Der Fels-Klerx HJ, Hoogenboom LA, and Oude Lansink AG. Optimizing bulk milk dioxin monitoring based on costs and effectiveness. J Dairy Sci. 2013. 96; 7.
• Pubmed
• DOI

NIEHS Funding:

• Not available

Other Funding:

• RIKILT-Institute of Food Safety, Wageningen University and Research Center, Wageningen, the Netherlands