Experts ask for further examination of health effects of dioxin crisis

Belgium’s Superior Health Council and the Scientific Committee of the Federal Food Agency have advised the government to further examine the public health consequences of the 1999 dioxin crisis.

In the spring of 1999, news broke that animal feedstock in Belgium had been contaminated with the chemical polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB). In April of this year, professor Nik Van Larebeke of Ghent University and the Free University of Brussels (VUB) said that the graveness of the situation was – and continues to be – minimised by some politicians.

The professor stated that the crisis might have led to at least 20,000 cancer cases among women, 22,000 more cases of diabetes and 24,000 additional cases of high blood pressure. He admitted, however, that it is difficult to show a causal connection between any given case and the crisis.

Following Van Larebeke’s statements, the federal ministers of public health and agriculture ordered experts to examine the issue. The experts stated in their report, issued this week, that they could find no “solid scientific evidence to link the crisis with health effects”. They said that Van Larebeke had made “multiple assumptions that cannot be verified”.

But the study does call for further research. New studies, the experts said, should take into account the possible effects of very low doses of dioxins. They also call for a global evaluation of the health effects of dioxins in collaboration with the European Food Safety Authority.

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