Jonathan Campbell, Health Consultant
Natural Therapies for Chronic Illness & Health Maintenance

ToxicAlert

Helping people take charge of their health

If you or a loved one or friend is afflicted with cancer, heart disease, AIDS, or other chronic illness, click here.

If you use Lipitor, Zocor, or another statin drug to control cholesterol, click here

If you're worried about the economy, click here

Dear all,

Today revealed a new chapter in the dioxin contamination of France, which will arguably stay as one of the milestones in our struggle towards a ban on waste incineration.

In May '96, Paul Connett and I lobbied quite a few players, and among them the powerful FNSEA, the biggest agriculture union in France. We told them to face reality and join us to campaign against the planned building of 150 new incinerators (yes, hundred fifty) till 2002 if they wanted to avoid to see their production banned from sale.

Well, this happened today. Cow milk in the north of France was found with values as high as 15 and 16 pg dioxin TEQ per gram of fat. Three nearby incinerators were ordered shut AND THE MILK HAS BEEN BANNED FROM SALE. This is the first time such a thing happens in France as far as dioxins are concerned. This is an immense victory regarding a molecule which was deemed a fantasy only five years ago, when we started our campaign with what was to become the "National coalition against waste import, export and incineration". Now, they're not only measuring the fantasy, but they're even taking real-life economic decisions when they find milk with too much fantasy in it...

All the national media are running the story, but I just want to share two quotes from Le Monde, January 28th : "This information demonstrates, to start with, that the concern of environmentalists and many scientists on the potential hazard of incinerator fumes is not as vain as certain academic declarations led to think" (by the way, this is a great allusion to the French academy of sciences that totally discredited itself in '94 with a "book"/industry advertisement on dioxins). And : "Everything leads one to think that, with dioxin, we're playing once again the bad movie of asbestos". Etc., etc., etc.

Take care, have a good night, and don't let the bugs bite !

Pierre-Emmanuel Neurohr

Centre national d'information indépendante sur les déchets (CNIID) 26 rue d'Annam 75020 Paris Tél. 01 43 58 68 65 Fax: 01 43 58 68 65 Portable: 06 12 11 04 51

(French version)