Carleton Chemistry professor, Dr. David Miller, is a co-author of a WHO publication seeking to minimize mycotoxin exposure, Improving Public Health through Mycotoxin Control.
Although largely invisible to most in the fully developed market economies, about 1/3rd of the Disability Adjusted Life Years lost on the planet are due to diseases known to be modulated by mycotoxins in food, substantially, but not only in Africa. In many years 10s of thousands of kids die from rather painful acute toxicosis. Of interest, aflatoxin in Africa made the shortlist of announcements from the G20 last May.
This book from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the specialized cancer agency of the World Health Organization, aims to sensitize the international community to the mycotoxin problem in a format that is accessible to a wide audience and is useful to decision makers across a broad spectrum of disciplines, including agriculture, public health, marketing, and economics. Dedicated to mycologist the late Prof. Wallie Marasas, this involved input from nearly two dozen experts and was drafted by John Pitt (CISIRO; principal editor), Chris Wild (IARC), Ron Riley (USDA), Felicia Wu (U Pittsburg), J. David Miller (Carleton University), and Wenzel Gelderblom (U Stellenbosch).
The intent is to provide reliable information to governments, nongovernmental and international organizations, and the private sector to initiate measures designed to minimize mycotoxin exposure in high-risk populations.
In low-income countries, subsistence or small-scale farmers produce foods for local consumption that may be heavily contaminated with mycotoxins; these foods are untested; and regulatory controls either do not exist or are not enforced. In low income countries, exposure to mycotoxins at high levels is often closely associated with inequality and poverty.
Chapters: Executive summary; Fungi producing significant mycotoxins; Chemical and physical characteristics of the principal mycotoxins; Sampling and sample preparation methods for determining concentrations of mycotoxins in foods and feed; Analysis of mycotoxins; Effects in food-producing animals; Mycotoxins and human health; Risk assessment and risk management of mycotoxins; Economics of mycotoxins: evaluating costs to society and cost-effectiveness of interventions; Practical approaches to control mycotoxins.
Distribution for all IARC Publications is managed by WHO Press – more information on the book.