RE: Dioxins in Belgian milk

["Campbell, Jon" <Campbell@Rational.Com>]

Emanu,
 
      You are right that Belgium should not be vilified in this. On the
other hand, the dioxin content of the chickens who ate that feed was off the
charts, hundreds of times greater than the EU standard. Typical
contamination of longer-lived meat, worldwide, hovers around 1 ppt TEQ. My
understanding is that the Belgian chickens were measured at hundreds of ppt.
 
     What is misunderstood is the extreme toxicity of these quite ordinary
and ubiquitous chemicals, PCBs in transformer oil, pump oil, older hydraulic
oil, etc. Our old nemesis Monsanto apparently made sure to proliferate these
chemicals before the world found out how toxic they were. (Now they call
themselves the company of Food, Health, and Hope. What a laugh.)
 
Jon

-----Original Message-----
From: Emmanuel de Broux [mailto:emmanuel.debroux@ping.be]
Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 1999 5:51 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list DIOXIN-L
Subject: Dioxins in Belgian milk



Dear listers, 


The following alert notice calls for comments: 


>FDA - For Immediate Release June 23, 1999 

>ALL MILK AND MILK-CONTAINING FOOD PRODUCTS FROM BELGIUM TO BE DETAINED AT
PORTS OF ENTRY 

>The Food and Drug Administration announced today that it is expanding the
import alert issued June 11 on egg- containing products from Belgium to
include milk-containing products such as cheese. The import alert recommends
detention of products at ports of entry until importers provide laboratory
test results showing the shipments are free of detectable levels of
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and/or dioxins. As with the June 11 import
alert, today's expansion is a precautionary step. 


There is just as much dioxins (and furans and PCBs) in milk collected in all
countries. This background level is not in any way higher in Belgium than
anywhere else. But from a commercial standpoint, pointing at Belgium as
vilain country yields juicy results, no doubt. 


This campaign is gone far enough to now entice countries other than Belgium
to analyse their dairy products for dioxins, furans and PCBs. I am sure some
unpleasant surprises will pop up. 


Best regards, Emmanuel. 

- Mr Emmanuel de Broux, avenue du Sacre-Coeur 7, B-5590 Leignon, Belgium. 

Tel + fax: international access code + 32 83 21 54 30