We must adopt a zero-tolerance approach to organic pollutants that don’t go away

THERE have been several references to “EU safe levels” of dioxins in the media recently. I wish to give you a different viewpoint regarding these “safe levels.”

To put it simply, dioxins are part of a group of chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants, or POPs. This means they stay very stable in the environment and don’t break down easily into safer substances.

Because of this, they ‘bio-accumulate’ - the higher up the food chain, the bigger dioxin load a creature will get, mostly through what it eats. To use humans as an example, every time you eat a steak you are getting a portion of the dioxins that the cow has accumulated in its lifetime.

If you munch your way through one whole cow’s worth of steaks in your lifetime, all those dioxins have accumulated in your body, along with any from dairy products you have consumed, plus all the other animal and plant traces of POPs that you have received.

Because these chemicals are fat-soluble, we can’t easily flush them out of our systems.

These substances don’t go away. That is why so many countries signed up to the Stockholm convention to stop all production of POPs.

That is also why the EPA in the US - the EPA with probably the most experience of dealing with dioxins - insists there is no safe level of dioxins.

This is the message we need to deliver to the Government and to the companies that try to run roughshod over the will of the local population.

We do not accept any level of these toxic chemicals.

Even one child exposed to risk is unacceptable. Any plans to build a profit on the back of such risks is unacceptable.

The people of Cork, and all the people of Ireland, must pull together to protect our precious future from complacency, political corruption and greed.

Áilis Ní Bhroin

Glenkeene

Farranlea Park

Model Farm Road

Cork