WRITTEN QUESTION E-1833/98

by Nikitas Kaklamanis (UPE) to the Commission

(12 June 1998)

Subject: Terrible dangers posed by presence of dioxin in French meat and milk

The presence of dioxin in French meat poses a very serious public health risk. The environmental organisation CNIID commissioned a German laboratory to analyse samples of supermarket meat from Paris and the surrounding regions: it found that dioxin was present in veal steaks. This is a toxic substance whose absorption in the human body over a prolonged period of time causes cancer and serious damage to the immune system. According to the findings of the CNIID report, it is waste incineration plants that are responsible for introducing dioxin into the food chain, since dioxin released through incineration finds its way - through the grass eaten by cattle - into fatty tissue. Cow milk is subject to similar contamination: quantities of dioxin have been detected in milk from northern France, which has led to the closure of waste incineration plants in the region.

Will the Commission give its official views on this very important matter and set out the findings of the research it has carried out and any information it possesses on the quantities of dioxin detected in meat and milk imported into Greece?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(24 July 1998)

The organisation to which the Honourable Member refers has indeed just published the results of dioxin analyses on samples of beef and veal purchased in supermarkets in France. The results of the analyses are in a normal range of results which can be found in meat in Europe. The concentrations were in all cases below 0,6 picogram/gram (pg/g) lipid based.

Moreover, the most recent monitoring programme carried out in 1997 by the French veterinary services related exclusively to milk samples taken on agricultural holdings which were the closest possible to and in the path of the prevailing winds from industrial sites which are potential sources of dioxin emissions (mainly iron and steel, metalworking, and chemical plants and domestic waste incinerators). The results of the 1997 programme are now known and are lower than the exclusion threshold of 5 pg TEQ(1)/g of milkfat (guideline values recommended by the Council of Europe), with the exception of two cattle farms located at 250 metres and one kilometre downwind from the domestic waste incineration plant in a commune in the department of Nord, where dioxin contents of 14,1 pg and 15,90 pg were found. In the interests of public health, three local incinerators were immediately closed, and the milk and milk products from the holdings in question were immediately withdrawn from human consumption. Similarly, the milk from all dairy farms within a radius of three kilometres of the incineration plant was subjected to the same monitoring measures and, where the level of 5 mg/g of milkfat was exceeded, the milk was withdrawn from consumption.

Given the particularly targeted approach in the choice of milk analysed, the contents found in milk under the 1997 monitoring programme are not representative of the average dioxin levels in milk and milk products marketed in France. The Conseil Supérieur d'Hygiène Publique de France (CSHPF) therefore recommended that dioxin levels be measured in categories of food other than milk products in order to gain information permitting a better assessment of the exposure of the general population to dioxin via the food chain in France. The monitoring programme for 1998 covers various foods (milk, farmed and freshwater fish, eggs, beef and veal and lettuce). Work in this connection is progressing.

In addition, milk monitoring has been stepped up around the principal industrial sources of of dioxin emission which have been identified.

The Commission has no information on the levels of dioxin detected in milk and meat imported into Greece nor for that matter on dioxin levels in milk and meat of Greek origin.

(1) TEQ: weighed unit of toxicity of the 17 toxic dioxin molecules.