Science of the Total Environment 322 (2004) 63–70 0048-9697/04/$ - see front matter  2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2003.08.002 Dietary intake of hexachlorobenzene in Catalonia, Spain G. Falco , A. Bocio , J.M. Llobet , J.L. Domingo *, C. Casas , A. Teixido a b a,b b, c c ´ ´ Toxicology Unit, School of Pharmacy, University of Barcelona, Av. Joan XXIII, syn, Barcelona 08028, Spain a Laboratory of Toxicology and Environmental Health, School of Medicine, ‘Rovira i Virgili’ University, San Lorenzo 21, b Reus 43201, Spain Department of Health and Social Security, Generalitat de Catalunya, Barcelona 08028, Spain c Abstract To assess the dietary intake of hexachlorobenzene (HCB) by the population of Catalonia, Spain, a total-diet study was carried out. Concentrations of HCB were determined in food samples randomly acquired in seven cities of Catalonia between June and August 2000. A total of 11 food groups were included in the study. HCB levels were determined by HRGCyHRMS. Estimates of average daily food consumption were obtained from recent studies. HCB intake was estimated for five population groups: children (aged 4 to 9 years), adolescents (aged 10 to 19 years), male and female adults (aged 20 to 65 years), and seniors (aged )65 years). In general, HCB residues in foods were rather low excepting dairy products with a mean concentration of 0.869 ngyg wet weight. Total dietary intakes of HCB (microgram per kilogram body weightyday) were the following: children (0.0064), adolescents (0.0031), female adults (0.0025), male adults (0.0024) and seniors (0.0019). All these values are considerably lower than the WHO tolerable daily intake (TDI), which is 0.17 mg kg day for non-cancer effects and 0.16 mg kg day y1 y1 y1 y1 for neoplastic effects in humans.  2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Hexachlorobenzene; Food; Total diet; Dietary exposure; Health risks 1. Introduction In recent years, monitoring programs to deter- mine the occurrence of chemical contaminants in foodstuffs and to assess health risks derived from human consumption have been developed in vari- ous countries. The concentrations of residues of a number of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) have been measured (Kiviranta et al., 2001; Tsut- sumi et al., 2001; Bocio et al., 2003). Among these pollutants, organochlorines pesticides such *Corresponding author. Tel.: q34-977-759380; fax: q34- 977-759322. E-mail address: jlldr@fmcs.urv.es (J.L. Domingo). as DDTs, hexachlorocyclohexanes, chlordane com- pounds, hexachlorobenzene (HCB) etc were also determined (Lazaro et al., 1996; Urieta et al., ´ 1996; Nakata et al., 2002; Newsome et al., 2000). In Spain, little information is available for HCB contamination of foods (Herrera et al., 1994; Lazaro et al., 1996; Urieta et al., 1996; Badia-Vila ´ et al., 2000). HCB is formed as a by-product during the manufacture of chemicals used as sol- vents, other chlorine-containing compounds and pesticides. Moreover, until recent decades HCB was widely used as a pesticide. According its chemical characteristics, HCB tends to remain in the environment for a long time breaking down