JECFA — Lead Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake (Withdrawn 2010)
The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives, at its 72nd meeting in June 2010, withdrew the long-standing provisional tolerable weekly intake of 25 µg lead per kilogram body weight per week and replaced it with no quantitative international reference value (JECFA 72nd 2010). The Committee concluded that the dose-response data for the critical endpoints (developmental neurotoxicity in children, cardiovascular and renal effects in adults) do not support a threshold-based PTWI and that no value could be considered health-protective at observed general-population dietary exposures (JECFA 72nd 2010).
This withdrawal is the source of the “no safe level of lead” framing that propagates through all subsequent regulatory documents (EFSA 2010 (EFSA Pb 2010), ATSDR 2020 (ATSDR 2020), FDA Closer to Zero 2025 (FDA CTZ Pb 2025), CDC BLRV 2021 (CDC BLRV)). Codex Alimentarius has not adopted a replacement health-based reference value for lead; matrix-specific maximum levels in CXS 193-1995 continue to operate but are not aligned to a single dietary reference (Codex CXS 193-1995).
Withdrawal record
Withdrawal record from JECFA 72nd 2010:
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Prior PTWI | 25 µg Pb/kg b.w./week |
| Withdrawal meeting | JECFA 72nd, June 2010 |
| Report publication | WHO Technical Report Series 959, 2011 |
| Replacement reference value | None (no PTWI currently in force) |
| Operational consequence | Codex MLs continue but without a unified health-based anchor; national agencies (FDA, EFSA) operate against their own reference frameworks |
Sources
- JECFA 72nd 2010 — JECFA 72nd meeting, 2010 (WHO TRS 959, 2011). Evaluation of Certain Contaminants in Food.