Experts move to ease fears of cancer risk
Related Articles
Monday December 08 2008
CONSUMERS have been told that the immediate risks posed by eating the pork contaminated with dioxins are virtually negligible.
Health experts said that while some types of the contaminant can cause cancer, this would only happen after prolonged exposure to high levels over a period of decades.
Alan Reilly, deputy chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), compared the risk posed by eating contaminated pork to smoking a cigarette.
"You'd have to be eating products containing these levels (of dioxins) for 40 years before you'd show any signs of illness.
"It's like smoking a cigarette. If you smoke one cigarette you're unlikely to get cancer but, if you smoke 20 cigarettes every day of your life, by the time you're 50 or 60 you have a pretty high risk of getting cancer.
"It's the same type of thing with these particular chemicals ," he explained.
Ireland's Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan, said an ad-hoc expert group has been appointed to advise on technical matters which will inform the advice that is given to the public. Members of the group include Dr Joe Treacy, of Beaumont Hospital; Dr Philip Mayne, of the National Children's Hospital, Temple Street; Prof Patrick Wall and Prof Dan Collins, of University College Dublin; Dr Iona Pratt, of the FSAI; and Dr Kevin Kelleher, of the Health Service Executive.
The group met yesterday and will meet "regularly" until the issue has been dealt with.
"The group considered the information which is available to date. They conducted a risk quantitative exercise, which essentially looked at the risks of this particular incident, and it established that the levels of exposure are broadly similar to those we have seen with the incident in Belgium which took place in 1999," said Dr Holohan.
Aftermath
Last night an official, who has made direct contact with the Belgian Crisis Management Group and the Belgian Food Safety Authority, said studies showed that there had been no negative effects on public health in the aftermath of their scare.
Meanwhile Chris Elliott, Professor of Food Safety at Queen's University, Belfast, said it should be relatively straightforward to track down the cause of the contamination, restoring consumer confidence will not be so easy.
"While consumers want food free from chemical contaminants, in this case there does not seem to be any significant risk to health from consumption of the tainted pork products."
- Aine Kerr, Breda Heffernan and Sarah Stack
