The Dioxins problem: by design or by accident?

•Dioxins are a group of chemicals commonly formed as by-products of industrial combustion and chemical processes, such as manufacturing of chemicals, pesticides, steel and paints, pulp and paper bleaching, exhaust emissions and incineration.

•Main source of dioxin contamination of food for human consumption is contaminated animal feed.

•Dioxins are absorbed by fatty tissue of cattle, poultry, pork and seafood. Foods high in animal fat, such as milk, meat, fish and eggs (and foods produced with them) are the main source of dioxins although all foods contains some.

•Dioxins are found throughout the industrialised world, in air, water and soil, as well as in food.

•Dioxins can cause problems for people if they are absorbed at high levels for long periods.

•They have been shown in lab tests to cause a wide range of effects in certain animals, such as cancer and damage to the immune and reproductive systems, including low sperm count and learning difficulties.

The source of the problem seems to be a plant in northern Germany which makes a wide variety of material to be used in animal feed, but also in industrial processes like paper-making. Somehow, a substance containing dioxin which shouldn't have been used in food for animals found its way into (on the current reckoning) 3,000 tonnes of feed. Prosecutors are investigating whether that was by design, perhaps to save money, or by accident.

A private laboratory's sample test from the plant on 19 March 2010 found more than double the acceptable level of 0.75 nanograms of dioxin per 1kg of fatty acids used in animal feed.

In relation to the ongoing investigation into the dioxin contamination of pig and poultry feed in Germany, following the distribution of affected eggs to the Netherlands, these eggs were mixed with other non-contaminated eggs to make pasteurised liquid egg. The Food Standard Agency (FSA) in Britain said that this pasteurised liquid egg has been distributed to the UK. However, the mixing of the eggs will have diluted the levels of dioxins and they are not thought to be a risk to health.

But the difficulty for the German authorities as they try to re-assure the public is that information keeps changing. However, Authorities in Brussels, London and Berlin say that, even though the levels of dioxin found have exceeded legal limits, they are still not dangerous. You would need to ingest a lot of dioxin before the risk of cancer rose, they say.