Lack of local laboratory ‘delayed tests’

FOOD Minister Trevor Sargent has said the absence of an Irish laboratory capable of testing for dioxins had delayed the discovery of the cancer-causing chemicals in pig meat.

Mr Sargent said the need to ship the samples to Britain had cost time.

He said although there are plans to open such a facility here there was none in place in time for the current outbreak.

“While we will have dioxin monitoring facilities in Ireland, at long last, we don’t at present, which means that it does take the time to send samples to England and nearly a week to get the results back,” he said.

Mr Sargent was speaking on RTÉ where he reassured consumers the poisons in question would have to be ingested for a long time before the public would suffer.

He was supported by chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan who said it was primarily concerned with preventing prolonged exposure.

However, the short period involved had eliminated much of this risk.

“We are talking about a short period from about mid September until now. The affects in a general sense are wide or varied, if exposed over a long period of time it can have affects on a range of different functions and origins,” he said.

Dr Holohan was speaking at the end of week where frantic efforts were made to minimise the risk and establish if there was potential for lasting damage.

He said as a father and as a doctor he was confident there would be no residual effects.

He based his opinions on the information supplied by the Department of Agriculture and the Food Safety Authority.

These two bodies, along with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Gardaí, have been involved in finding the roots of the scare.

Warning bells first sounded on November 28 when results from random samples taken by Department officials confirmed traces of marker-PCBs.

These are not proof of the existence of dioxins but they provide a strong indication to food safety experts.

The animals were isolated to a small number of pig farms and in turn were traced back to a single feed supplier.

On Monday further tests were carried out and on Tuesday night samples were flown to a specialist laboratory in York, England.

There scientists worked overtime and on Saturday at 3.40pm confirmed to the Department of Agriculture the dioxins were present in the animals and the feed.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen had arrived at the department minutes earlier and, along with other senior ministers, was briefed before the recall was announced two hours later.

Dr Holohan asked the Food Safety Authority to establish a six-member technical group to inform the Government of the ongoing health risks.

European food safety authorities also said yesterday that based on a similar outbreak in Belgium nine years ago it did not expect any long-term public health affects.

Last night a united panel of representatives from the relevant Government departments said the processes followed throughout the week were in keeping with best practice.

These were carried out with the support of the European Commission.

This was done to ensure the country could restore faith in the safety of meat which will be slaughtered from this morning onwards.