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Europe
Italy: EU Mozzarella cheese ban looms
2008-03-28
(AKI) - The European Commission set a Thursday deadline for the Italian authorities to supply further details of buffalo mozzarella production after samples were found to have higher than permitted levels of cancer-causing dioxins.

The commission has said it does not rule out some form of ban on Italian buffalo mozzarella. "The information we received is incomplete, much is missing. This is why we sent a letter to Rome yesterday evening," spokeswoman Nina Papadoulaki told Adnkronos International (AKI). "We want information on all the dairies involved, a list of distributors of all the contaminated products, so we can know which countries and regions they have been sent to, and the immediate recall of all the contaminated products."

"We also want systematic monitoring of all the farms and equipment that may have been contaminated, to ensure no contaminated cheese enters the market," Papadoulaki said.

The highly popular mozzarella cheese is made from buffalo milk in the southern Campania region, where there are fears the cheese may have been contaminated by dioxins and other chemicals from illegally dumped toxic waste.

Papadoulaki said four farms and 23 dairies had been found to be contaminated, according to information supplied from Rome.
Posted by:Fred

#11  James,

And then they exposed lawyers to it. The lawyers were immune, except for additional frothing at the mouth. That was considered an expected side effect, and not very remarkable.
Posted by: Eric Jablow   2008-03-28 23:40  

#10  Okay, I'll bite - TMK MOZZARELLA CHEESE in general, and BUFFALO MOZZARELLA in particular, are well known for being high/excellent-quality cheese that is also hazardous = deadly to human health iff not prepared andor aged properly.

THIS DIOXIN DANGER/THREAT IS OLD AND ALREADY KNOWN, AT LEAST SINCE 1970's IFF NOT EARLIER- WHATS THE BEEF??? IIRC, THE DIOXIN BACK THEN WAS SCIENTIFICALLY HELD TO HAD PREDOMIN OCCURRED NATURALLY AS PART OF THE NORMAL MOZZA PRODUCTION PROCESS.

I don't see any of the Euros formally banning a quality product they and the world's been successfully + joyfully consuming for decades already.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2008-03-28 19:58  

#9  I've read about a guy who gives talks about dioxin that eats a tablespoon of if in front of the audience. He claims it has saved more lives than any other chem ever made. It stopped a tuberculosis outbreak during WWII, I think, that was caused by body lice, and it has helped control mosquitoes all over the world. Mosquitoes have probably killed more humans than any other insect, so he may be right.
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2008-03-28 18:40  

#8  I remember reading about that accident in Italy, and those guinea pigs. I think it was in a Scientific American article, many decades ago. It seems that guinea pigs are extremely sensitive to dioxin--they keeled over quickly. Lab rats took 100 times that dose before suffering ill effects, and the humans were exposed to 10 times more than the lab rats--without more than skin rashes. (I may have the 10 and 100 factors switched, but I remember the claim that the human dose was 1000x the guinea pig dose.)
Posted by: James   2008-03-28 18:26  

#7  Heya EU,

Shut uppa yo face!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=sFacWGBJ_cs
Posted by: Capsu78   2008-03-28 17:07  

#6  The commission has said it does not rule out some form of ban on Italian buffalo mozzarella.
I thought Ted Turner had the bison market cornered!
Posted by: Thealing Borgia6122   2008-03-28 13:00  

#5  hey, who moved my cheese!
Posted by: Querent   2008-03-28 12:51  

#4  Zhang Fei, good points. Of course, Botulinum toxin is much, much more lethal. It is estimated that one nanogram/kilogram is enough to kill a human.
On the other hand, Botox, made from Botulinum toxin, is one of the most popular cosmetic treatments today, especially among aging Hollywood types and politicians.
Posted by: Rambler in California   2008-03-28 12:42  

#3  Dioxin has gained media attention since Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yuschchenko was poisoned with the chemical. Alarmists refer to it as "the most deadly chemical known," but such is not the case, says Michael Fumento of the Hudson Institute.

Dioxin is a byproduct of certain industrial processes such as incineration and bleaching. Humans carry small amounts of dioxin in their fat and blood, but the myth of "deadly dioxin" began with an experiment with guinea pigs, who were fed 1,000 times as much before they died.

Even though large amounts killed guinea pigs, the facts are:

* Yuschchenko carried about 6,000 times as much dioxin as the average person; furthermore, the skin disease brought about by dioxin is a result of direct contact with the skin.
* Vietnam vets were monitored for high dioxin levels allegedly resulting from exposure to Agent Orange, but the Centers for Disease Control reports that the dioxin levels among Vietnam vets were similar to non-Vietnam vets.
* The controversial Love Canal area, which was reportedly dioxin-contaminated decades ago, was blamed for various illnesses; but biologist Michael Gough notes that no studies have proven the link, despite clean-up projects that continue to cost U.S. industries.

Furthermore, worldwide studies examining the effect of dioxin on exposed workers or townspeople show no evidence that dioxin is a carcinogen (as the International Agency for Research on Cancer calls it).

Viktor Yuschchenko may not look that great for awhile, says Fumento, but he could have had it worse -- such as death by a few drops of strychnine or even a teaspoon of iron.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2008-03-28 10:48  

#2  The highly popular mozzarella cheese is made from buffalo milk...

Quick get the Sioux tribal council on the line, we may have a potential to get their Dakota reservations out of the poverty and unemployment rut.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2008-03-28 09:25  

#1  The first big dioxin accident was in Italy.
Seveso Disaster but this was far north of the Campania region.

One wonders...

Posted by: 3dc   2008-03-28 00:29  

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