Dioxin in eggs scandal apparently expands

How PCB and Dioxin get into food

04/18/2012

The dioxin scandal is widening: After the dioxin finds in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony, dioxin-contaminated eggs were also discovered in the states of Brandenburg and Rhineland-Palatinate. It is still not clear to the consumer protection authorities how the exceeded limit values ​​in the eggs came about.

The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) emphasizes that a small amount of dioxin or the dioxin-like substance PCB in food is absorbed by a small amount „acute health hazard“ not to go out. Environmentalists hold against it: If even small amounts of toxic substances are taken up continuously over a longer period of time, then long-term health consequences threaten because the half-life lasts up to 30 years. The reason for this is the deposition of poorly degradable dioxin in the fatty tissue of the human body. Dioxin is suspected to provoke cancer. But since immediate consequences are only visible at extremely high doses, relationships can be difficult to produce, because a cancer usually develops years later.

PCB eggs also in Brandenburg
As reported by the Ministry of Consumer Protection of the State of Brandenburg in Potsdam, about 10,800 chicken eggs were delivered from a large farm of an egg producer in Lower Saxony via a wholesaler in North Rhine-Westphalia to an egg marketing company in the district of Dahme-Spreewald. According to the authorities, the contaminated eggs have been traded and already sold. According to the Brandenburg Ministry of Health „There is no immediate danger to consumers of health“. Consumers who have already bought the eggs with the stamp number 0-DE-0357661 should dispose of them immediately and in no case consume.

Further finds in Rhineland-Palatinate
In Rhineland-Palatinate also contaminated eggs were discovered. The chicken eggs contaminated with PCBs come from Lower Saxony laying hens farms, as a spokesman for the Rhineland-Palatinate State Investigation Office in Koblenz explained. Affected are the eggs with the stamp numbers 0-DE-0357661, 1-DE-0354451, 1-DE-0354452, 1-DE-0354453 and 1-DE-0352691. If eggs have already been bought with the manufacturer codes, they can be returned to the supermarkets for reimbursement of the purchase price. So far it could not be found out how the pollutants got into the eggs of the affected farms. An evaluation of the State Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety in Oldenburg was prepared with about 220 eggs from two conventional chicken farms and an organic farm from the district of Aurich.

PCB suspected of cancer
PCB damages the nervous system, affects the immune system and causes cancer. PCB is a dioxin-like substance. Under the collective term „Polychlorinated biphenyls“ fall 209 known pollutant variants. The structures of some of these substances are similar to those of highly toxic dioxins. Therefore, they are also called „Dioxin-like“ in the media and by the consumer protection authorities. The modes of action are similar in the human body and can cause corresponding damage. The Federal Environment Agency therefore had to admit that the PCB was very „probably carcinogenic“ be. In animal studies, scientists have found that the toxic substances lead to infertility, impair the immune system, damage nerve cells and significantly disrupt the hormone balance. However, it was not possible to determine to what extent PCB or dioxin actually reacts in humans. However, it is likely that the negative effects are at least similar.

PCB banned since 1989 in the industry
The toxins have been manufactured in the industry since 1929 and have been widely used because of their low flammability and non-electroconductive ability. For example, the materials are used in hydraulic systems, capacitors, transformers or as plasticizers in paints, joint sealants and plastics. In Germany, the use of PCB since 1989 for all industrially manufactured variants is prohibited. But because the contaminated sites are often stored improperly, the toxins spread in the environment. To this day, many places are experiencing higher pressures in the air, mostly in the vicinity of industrial areas.

PCB has a high half-life
Because PCBs and dioxins are barely decomposed by biological processes, they enter the bodies of animals and humans, where they superimpose themselves in the fat cells. PCB can accomplish enormous distances through the air and through the water. So it is not uncommon that the toxic substances can be detected in fish or Arctic animals. The Rubner Institute (MRI) in Hamburg recently reported that environmental toxins and dioxins are repeatedly detectable in edible fish. Samples in Lower Saxony's rivers had recently detected particularly high environmental impact in eels and bream. In the rivers of the Aller, Elbe and Weser, experts from the Ministry of the Environment found not only the pollutant dioxin but also the toxic compound of the PCB. In about half of all eels studied in the Elbe, the limits for hexachlorobenzene, HCH, DDT and metabolites were significantly exceeded. "In the eels, the load fluctuates strongly, PCBs are released in water mainly as a contaminated site from sediments, and are locally contaminated different levels." said Michael Haarich from the Institute for Fishery Ecology of the Von-Thünen-Institute in Hamburg. High-fat fish such as herring or eel are severely affected today.

Limit values ​​are often exceeded in meat, fish, eggs and milk
Often the limits for fish, meat, eggs and milk are exceeded. Since the pollutants usually occur in combination, there is a so-called sum limit for dioxin and PCB loads. According to the World Health Organization, people should not take more than one picogram (pg, one trillionth of a gram) of dioxins and PCB per kilogram of body weight per day. The current intake is exceeded many times within the EU. An EU Commission therefore set a guideline value of 14 pg per kilo of body weight. That's an average of two picograms a day.

Limit values ​​were exceeded by six times
The EU daily dose also explains the limit for food. Therefore, according to the Directive, eggs may contain five picograms of dioxins and PCB per gram per egg-fat. However, this also means that the consumption of one egg already exceeds the daily dose by more than double. The currently contaminated eggs exceeded this limit six times more.

Nevertheless, the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) calms the population. Although the limits do not state that a permanent consumption of contaminated eggs is excluded, be at „short-term consumption of eggs from the current case, a health threat to consumers unlikely ". (sb)

Read about:
Circles withheld information about PCB eggs
Dioxin eggs also in Lower Saxony
Dioxin in organic eggs: causes still unknown
Easter with dioxin eggs from the organic farm
Dioxin eggs could have entered the market
Health risk from dioxin eggs

Picture: wrw