Dioxin and PCBs in chicken eggs taken from some farms in the countryside of Martina Franca and Crispiano, in the province of Taranto. The alarm, launched on 8 January by the Antidixin Fund, was also confirmed by the official data acquired by the non-profit organization and drawn up by the Prevention Department of the Taranto Local Health Authority and the Zooprophylactic Institute of Puglia and Basilicata.
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerous
Dioxin and PCBs in chicken eggs taken from some farms in the countryside of Martina Franca and Crispiano, in the province of Taranto. The alarm, already launched on January 8 by Antidiosina Fund, it was also confirmed by the official data acquired by the non-profit organization and drawn up by the Prevention Department of the Asl of Taranto and of the Zooprophylactic Institute of Puglia and Basilicata.
"We now come to know that even the Asl of Taranto, in recent years, had detected various critical issues with conspicuous exceedances not only of the" action values ", but also of the" limit values ", up to over 200%", writes the Fund . This can be clearly seen from the analytical values far higher than the action values and the limit values referred to in Regulation (EU) no. 1259/2011, in force since 1 January 2012, which updates the Regulation 1881/2006.
Since then, however, systematic checks have no longer been carried out on the farms located in the province of Taranto, despite the fact that these serious problems had been highlighted. The same department, on the other hand, has made it known that it has carried out numeroussampling of widely consumed eggs from large intensive farms (in batteries) of laying hens subjected to a controlled diet and, therefore, not in contact with soils potentially contaminated by micropollutants contained in atmospheric depositions. The analytical results obtained would all be negative with very low dioxin and pcb values, to the point of being able to reassure the consumer.
In other words, in recent years, the health authority would have decided to aiming only at the control of large producers and not at that of farms taken individually, capable of producing only a few thousand eggs per year, sometimes intended solely for self-consumption. The eggs of the hens raised on the ground in the farms of Crispiano and Martina Franca were in many cases positive in the presence of these dangerous congeners, so much so that the ASL itself advised against their consumption with the ordinance of 4 January 2013 (prot. 23 / IA ), signed by the managers of the Department, dott. Teodoro Ripa and dr. Vito De Chirico.
But if the alarm is not so strong for health, it certainly is for the environment: understanding the phenomenon of diffusion of these pollutants would allow us to understand whether a large-scale environmental risk can be associated with the health risk detected on a food matrix. In this sense, free-range eggs from free-range hens could be considered as bioindicators of potential pollution.
For this reason, the Antidixin Fund, convinced that it is enough to stop polluting sources to put an end to the spread of dioxins and PCBs, presumably through industrial emissions, hopes for "support from the regional technical control body, ARPA Puglia, for the definition of a health and environmental monitoring and control plan to be implemented jointly with the ASL Taranto aimed at effective primary prevention ".
“With yesterday's press conference, we demonstrated, with data in hand, that dioxins and PCBs are also heavily undermining the countryside of Crispiano and Martina Franca. Battery-reared hens, therefore not in contact with the ground, are not contaminated. On the contrary, those that scratch free in the farms produce eggs that are positive for the presence of dioxins and pcb.dl. with values that even exceed double the “limit value” (5pg / g dioxins + pcb.dl). Reaching and exceeding this value obliges the authorities to prohibit the marketing and to order the destruction of the eggs. Indeed, in a Crispiano farm the value of dioxins and pcb.dl exceeded 11pg / gr. Values that make the livestock sector of Crispiano and Martina Franca tremble ”, explains Professor Fabio Matacchiera, legal manager of the Antidixin Fund.
Roberta Ragni
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