Chinese people are facing cancer risk from dioxin because of the dietary pattern changes over the past 30 years, according to a study.

Dietary pattern modification including increased consumption of animal-derived products and decreased intake of grain and vegetables is raising cancer risk from 0.2 to 1.2 percent in 1980 and 2009, respectively, according to a study released on Thursday in Nature's affiliated magazine named Scientific Reports.

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According to a thesis by Ma Jianmin and Dr. Huang Tao, both from Lanzhou University, the changes in dietary patterns as of 2009 accounted for 17 percent of the cancer risk of the Chinese population in contrast with the 8 percent in 1980.

They further revealed that people living both in urban and eastern parts of China are exposed to relatively higher cancer risk from dioxin than those from the rural areas and western part of the country. This is because of the increased emissions and greater consumption of food derived from animals like meat, dairy products and eggs.

Aside from that, increasing dioxin emissions from iron and steel and thermal power industries including waste cremation are also contributing factors to the heightened cancer risk. However, Prof. Ma stressed that "food ingestion is still the major route for human exposure and body burden to dioxin."

Although the Chinese government has already devised ways and increased its efforts to curb excessive dioxin emissions, Prof. Ma said it is equally important to make the public aware of the cancer risks these foods carry so as to encourage people to go for a healthier diet.

Tagsdioxin, dioxin contaminated food, china, lifestyle, dietary changes