Irish pork crisis of 2008 - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Irish pork crisis of 2008 was a dioxin contamination incident in Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

that led to an international recall of pork

Pork

Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig , which is eaten in many countries. It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC....

products from Ireland produced between September and early December of that year. It was disclosed in early December 2008 that contaminated animal feed

Compound feed

Compound feeds are feedstuffs that are blended from various raw materials and additives. These blends are formulated according to the specific requirements of the target animal...

supplied by one Irish manufacturer to thirty-seven beef farms and nine pig farms across Republic of Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

, and eight beef farms and one dairy farm in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

, had caused the contamination of pork with between 80 and 200 times the EU's recommended limit for dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs

Polychlorinated biphenyl

Polychlorinated biphenyls are a class of organic compounds with 2 to 10 chlorine atoms attached to biphenyl, which is a molecule composed of two benzene rings. The chemical formula for PCBs is C12H10-xClx...

i.e. 0.2 ng/g TEQ fat (0.2 ppb

Parts-per notation

In science and engineering, the parts-per notation is a set of pseudo units to describe small values of miscellaneous dimensionless quantities, e.g. mole fraction or mass fraction. Since these fractions are quantity-per-quantity measures, they are pure numbers with no associated units of measurement...

). The Food Safety Authority of Ireland moved on 6 December to recall from the market all Irish pork products dating from 1 September 2008 to that date. The contaminated feed that was supplied to forty-five beef farms across the island was judged to have caused no significant public health risk, accordingly no recall of beef was ordered. Also affected was a dairy farm in Northern Ireland; some milk supplies were withdrawn from circulation.

Within days thousands of jobs were either lost or under threat at pig processing plants across the country, as processors refused to resume slaughter of pigs until they received financial compensation. Pork supplies to a total of twenty-three countries was affected, thirteen within the European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

and the remainder outside in an area across at least three continents. Countries affected include: Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

, Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

, Estonia

Estonia

Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...

, the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

, Cyprus

Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

, Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

, South Korea

South Korea

The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

and Republic of Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

.

It is now suspected that the oil that contaminated the offending pig feed with dioxins came from County Tyrone

County Tyrone

Historically Tyrone stretched as far north as Lough Foyle, and comprised part of modern day County Londonderry east of the River Foyle. The majority of County Londonderry was carved out of Tyrone between 1610-1620 when that land went to the Guilds of London to set up profit making schemes based on...

. Some reports suggest the recovery of the Irish pork market will take up to a decade. The Irish government has been criticised over its handling of the incident.

On 18 December 2008 it was disclosed that the beef samples from the affected farms had dioxin levels between 100 and 400 times the legal limit. However the Irish authorities insisted that the threat to public health from Irish beef products, even though the dioxin levels were higher than in the affected pork, was insignificant. On 25 January 2009, Chinese quarantine authorities seized over 23 tonnes of frozen and contaminated Irish pork which was imported by a company in the city of Suzhou

Suzhou

Suzhou , previously transliterated as Su-chou, Suchow, and Soochow, is a major city located in the southeast of Jiangsu Province in Eastern China, located adjacent to Shanghai Municipality. The city is situated on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and on the shores of Taihu Lake and is a part...

in October 2008. On 28 January 2009, Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture was told by Indaver Ireland Managing Director John Ahern that Ireland could "sleepwalk" into another pork crisis if the Minister for the Environment, John Gormley

John Gormley

John Gormley is an Irish politician. He was the leader of the Irish Green Party from 2007 to 2011, and was a Teachta Dála for the Dublin South East constituency from 1997 to 2011. He served as Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government from 2007–11...

, continued with his plans to commence widespread use of Mechanical Biological Treatment.

Background

On the evening of 6 December, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland ordered the recall, withdrawal and destruction of all Irish pork products dating back to 1 September. It was announced that "dioxins

Dioxins and dioxin-like compounds

Dioxins and dioxin-like compounds are by-products of various industrial processes, and are commonly regarded as highly toxic compounds that are environmental pollutants and persistent organic pollutants . They include:...

& dioxin like PCB

Polychlorinated biphenyl

s", a group of highly toxic synthetic halogenated organic compounds, had been discovered in pork at levels between 80 and 200 times the EU's recommended safety limits. This contamination, which was first realised on 1 December, came about as a result of contamination of pig feed. The positive results for dioxins

Dioxins and dioxin-like compounds

and dioxin like PCB

Polychlorinated biphenyl

s were confirmed on the afternoon of 6 December and announced within hours. The Irish general public were advised to destroy all their purchased pork products as Ireland's Department of Agriculture and the Food Safety Authority had initiated an investigation.
Contaminated feed was used at as many as forty-six farms in the Republic of Ireland

Republic of Ireland

of which thirty-seven raised cattle for beef

Beef

Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...

and nine produced pork. Additionally, contaminated feed was used on eight cattle farms in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

. Beef products, from cattle who may have been fed contaminated feed, were judged to be safe and were not recalled from market. One cattle farm in Northern Ireland used the feed for beef and dairy cattle, and milk from this farm was removed from the food supply.

Following the discovery, the Taoiseach

Taoiseach

The Taoiseach is the head of government or prime minister of Ireland. The Taoiseach is appointed by the President upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas , and must, in order to remain in office, retain the support of a majority in the Dáil.The current Taoiseach is...

, Brian Cowen

Brian Cowen

Brian Cowen is a former Irish politician who served as Taoiseach of Ireland from 7 May 2008 to 9 March 2011. He was head of a coalition government led by Fianna Fáil which until 23 January 2011 had the support of the Green Party and independent TDs.Cowen was also leader of Fianna Fáil from 7 May...

and the Irish Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Brendan Smith

Brendan Smith (politician)

Brendan Smith is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. He has been a Teachta Dála for the Cavan–Monaghan constituency since 1992. He previously served as the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and Minister for Justice and Law Reform .Born in Cavan in 1956, Smith was educated at Bawnboy...

attended talks at their government's Department of Agriculture. Alongside them were the Minister for Health

Minister for Health and Children (Ireland)

The Minister for Health is the senior minister at the Department of Health in the Government of Ireland and is responsible for health care in the Republic of Ireland and related services.The current Minister for Health is James Reilly, TD...

, Mary Harney

Mary Harney

Mary Harney is a former Irish politician. She served as Tánaiste from 1997–2006, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment from 1997–2004, and as Minister for Health and Children from 2004 to 2011...

and Minister of State (with special responsibility for Food and Horticulture)

Minister of State (with special responsibility for Food and Horticulture)

The Minister of State for Food, Horticulture and Food Safety is a junior ministerial post in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine of the Government of Ireland...

, Trevor Sargent

Trevor Sargent

Trevor Sargent is an Irish Green Party politician. He was a Teachta Dála for the Dublin North constituency from 1992 to 2011...

and Minister of State (with special responsibility for Health Promotion and Food Safety), Mary Wallace

Mary Wallace

Mary Wallace is a former Irish Fianna Fáil politician. She served as a Teachta Dála for the Meath and Meath East constituencies from 1989 to 2011.Wallace was born in County Dublin in 1959...

. The opposition party Fine Gael

Fine Gael

Fine Gael is a centre-right to centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland. It is the single largest party in Ireland in the Oireachtas, in local government, and in terms of Members of the European Parliament. The party has a membership of over 35,000...

's spokesperson for agriculture, Michael Creed

Michael Creed

Michael Creed is an Irish Fine Gael politician and has been a Teachta Dála for the Cork North West constituency since 2007....

described the discovery as "potentially the biggest threat to the agriculture food sector since the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease

Foot-and-mouth disease

Foot-and-mouth disease or hoof-and-mouth disease is an infectious and sometimes fatal viral disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals, including domestic and wild bovids...

".

On the afternoon of 7 December, the FSAI claimed identification of the source as a contaminated ingredient which had been added to pork feed, and said it was now considered that the profile of dioxins located is similar to those found in electronic transformer oil

Transformer oil

Transformer oil or insulating oil is usually a highly-refined mineral oil that is stable at high temperatures and has excellent electrical insulating properties. It is used in oil-filled transformers, some types of high voltage capacitors, fluorescent lamp ballasts, and some types of high voltage...

s. On the evening of that same day, RTÉ

Raidió Teilifís Éireann

Raidió Teilifís Éireann is a semi-state company and the public service broadcaster of Ireland. It both produces programmes and broadcasts them on television, radio and the Internet. The radio service began on January 1, 1926, while regular television broadcasts began on December 31, 1961, making...

, the state-run broadcaster, reported that the source of the crisis was a processing plant in County Carlow (see #Millstream Power Recycling Limited). A garda

Garda Síochána

, more commonly referred to as the Gardaí , is the police force of Ireland. The service is headed by the Commissioner who is appointed by the Irish Government. Its headquarters are located in the Phoenix Park in Dublin.- Terminology :...

investigation was launched. The Association of Pigmeat Processors refused to continue slaughtering pigs, insisting they needed a massive financial package (up to €1 billion) from the Irish government to assist them with the mass recall. The European Union maintained that there would be no funding for the Irish pork industry in the wake of the crisis. Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny

Enda Kenny

Enda Kenny is an Irish Fine Gael politician, and has been the Taoiseach since 2011. He has led Fine Gael since 2002. He served as Minister for Tourism and Trade from 1994 to 1997. He is also a two-term Vice President of the European People's Party.Kenny has been a Teachta Dála for Mayo since...

criticised the Irish government, calling the crisis "an unmitigated disaster".

Affected products

Most pork products are at risk of contamination; however, pork gelatine

Gelatin

Gelatin is a translucent, colorless, brittle , flavorless solid substance, derived from the collagen inside animals' skin and bones. It is commonly used as a gelling agent in food, pharmaceuticals, photography, and cosmetic manufacturing. Substances containing gelatin or functioning in a similar...

, products containing pork gelatine such as sweets, crisps and snack foods and sauces with pork or ham content are not.

Health effects of Dioxins and PCBs

Dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyl

Polychlorinated biphenyl

s (PCBs) are two groups of predominately man-made toxic chemicals which, when consumed, affect both the immune

Immune system

An immune system is a system of biological structures and processes within an organism that protects against disease by identifying and killing pathogens and tumor cells. It detects a wide variety of agents, from viruses to parasitic worms, and needs to distinguish them from the organism's own...

and reproductive system

Reproductive system

The reproductive system or genital system is a system of organs within an organism which work together for the purpose of reproduction. Many non-living substances such as fluids, hormones, and pheromones are also important accessories to the reproductive system. Unlike most organ systems, the sexes...

s and are classified as probably carcinogenic by the World Health Organization

World Health Organization

The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...

and in the United States by the National Cancer Institute

National Cancer Institute

The National Cancer Institute is part of the National Institutes of Health , which is one of 11 agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NCI coordinates the U.S...

and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry is a federal public health agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The agency focuses on minimizing human health risks associated with exposure to hazardous substances...

. The toxicity of dioxins and dioxin like PCBs

Polychlorinated biphenyl

is mediated by their ability to bind strongly to the aryl hydrocarbon

Aryl hydrocarbon receptor

The Aryl hydrocarbon receptor is a member of the family of basic-helix-loop-helix transcription factors. AhR is a cytosolic transcription factor that is normally inactive, bound to several co-chaperones...

cell receptor

Receptor (biochemistry)

In biochemistry, a receptor is a molecule found on the surface of a cell, which receives specific chemical signals from neighbouring cells or the wider environment within an organism...

that is present in most animals.

Several epidemiological

Epidemiology

Epidemiology is the study of health-event, health-characteristic, or health-determinant patterns in a population. It is the cornerstone method of public health research, and helps inform policy decisions and evidence-based medicine by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive...

studies have observed a correlation

Correlation does not imply causation

"Correlation does not imply causation" is a phrase used in science and statistics to emphasize that correlation between two variables does not automatically imply that one causes the other "Correlation does not imply causation" (related to "ignoring a common cause" and questionable cause) is a...

between high levels of dioxins and PCBs in humans and a wide variety of adverse health effects e.g. chloracne

Chloracne

Chloracne is an acne-like eruption of blackheads, cysts, and pustules associated with over-exposure to certain halogenated aromatic compounds, such as chlorinated dioxins and dibenzofurans...

, lowering of IQ, dysfunction of the thyroid gland and reduction of thyroid hormone

Thyroid hormone

The thyroid hormones, thyroxine and triiodothyronine , are tyrosine-based hormones produced by the thyroid gland primarily responsible for regulation of metabolism. An important component in the synthesis of thyroid hormones is iodine. The major form of thyroid hormone in the blood is thyroxine ,...

levels, elevated rates of endometriosis

Endometriosis

Endometriosis is a gynecological medical condition in which cells from the lining of the uterus appear and flourish outside the uterine cavity, most commonly on the ovaries. The uterine cavity is lined by endometrial cells, which are under the influence of female hormones...

in women, higher levels of diabetes in women, precocious puberty

Precocious puberty

As a medical term, precocious puberty describes puberty occurring at an unusually early age. In most of these children, the process is normal in every respect except the unusually early age, and simply represents a variation of normal development. In a minority of children, the early development is...

in females and subtle developmental delay in children, as evidenced by altered play activity. Males appear to be more sensitive to poisoning by high levels of dioxins & dioxin-like PCBs and are more likely to develop severe symptoms e.g. young men poisoned by TCDD (the most toxic dioxin) are less likely to father boys. See Geusau et al. (2001) who describe the clinical manifestations of two extremely severe (and probably criminal

History of poison

The history of poison stretches from before 4500 BC to the present day. Poisons have been used for many purposes across the span of human existence, most commonly as weapons, anti-venoms, and medicines...

) dioxin poisoning cases.

Much of the hazard posed by dioxins and PCBs comes from their environmental persistence

Persistent organic pollutant

thumb|right|275px|State parties to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic PollutantsPersistent organic pollutants are organic compounds that are resistant to environmental degradation through chemical, biological, and photolytic processes...

and their lipophilic

Lipophilic

Lipophilicity, , refers to the ability of a chemical compound to dissolve in fats, oils, lipids, and non-polar solvents such as hexane or toluene. These non-polar solvents are themselves lipophilic — the axiom that like dissolves like generally holds true...

nature, resulting their propensity to accumulate in the food chain

Food chain

A food web depicts feeding connections in an ecological community. Ecologists can broadly lump all life forms into one of two categories called trophic levels: 1) the autotrophs, and 2) the heterotrophs...

, particularity in the fat of animals. About 80% of human exposure to dioxins and PCBs comes from animal derived foods e.g. poultry, beef and dairy. However, the health effects and risks of long-term, low-level exposure to the general public cannot be observed directly, and are highly controversial. It is not known if the dose response

Dose-response relationship

The dose-response relationship, or exposure-response relationship, describes the change in effect on an organism caused by differing levels of exposure to a stressor after a certain exposure time...

relationship at low-levels of exposure is sub-linear or linear

Linear no-threshold model

The linear no-threshold model is a method for predicting the long term, biological damage caused by ionizing radiation and is based on the assumption that the risk is directly proportional to the dose at all dose levels....

, or has a threshold

Threshold model

In mathematical or statistical modelling a threshold model is any model where a threshold value, or set of threshold values, is used to distinguish ranges of values where the behaviour predicted by the model differs in some important way...

i.e. harmless at very low levels. Risk assessments are further complicated by the observation that contamination typically involves a complex mixture of related chemicals

PCB Congener List

A complete list of polychlorinated biphenyl congeners.-Explanation of PCB "Descriptors":Congener descriptors give a shorthand notation for geometry and substituent positions...

, the toxicity of each varies and has to be factored according to its Toxic Equivalency Factor (TEF) (where TCDD = 1). The product of TEF is the Toxic Equivalency Quantity (TEQ), and it is this value that is used in risk assessments (an on-line Toxic Equivalency Quantity Calculator).

The European Union

European Union

(EU) uses a linear

Linear no-threshold model

dose response curve at low-levels of exposure, below the point where there are epidemiological

Epidemiology

data. In other words, the EU

European Union

assumes there is no safe level of dioxins and PCBs. Accordingly, the European Union sets extremely stringent limits for dioxin and dioxin like PCBs in food, set just above the usual background levels found in various food categories e.g. fish, poultry, beef, pork etc. The limit set for dioxins in pork fat and meat is 1 pg/g TEQ i.e. 1 parts per trillion (ppt)

Parts-per notation

(see swimming pool illustration). The maximum dioxin contamination measured in Irish pork was 0.2 ng/g TEQ fat (200 ppt

Parts-per notation

), equivalent to dispersing 10 drops of TCDD throughout a 2.5 million liter

Litér

- External links :*...

Olympic sized swimming pool.

Millstream Power Recycling Limited

52.6357°N 6.6228°W

RTÉ News has named the company behind the contaminated animal feed as Millstream Power Recycling Limited, located just outside Fenagh

Fennagh, County Carlow

Fennagh or Fenagh is a village in County Carlow, Ireland. It lies on the R724 regional road between Muine Bheag and Myshall.-Amenities:...

, County Carlow

County Carlow

County Carlow is a county in Ireland. It is part of the South-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Carlow, which lies on the River Barrow. Carlow County Council is the local authority for the county...

in the south-east of the country. All production at the plant was stopped in the week before the announcement, when a link between it and the contaminated feed was first suspected. A representative of the firm, David Curtin, denied reports of a use of industrial oil in the contaminated pig feed, saying that, whilst oil is used to power the machinery used for processing, he is not certain that this is the source of the outbreak. The oil, at the firm's insistence, was only ever purchased from "legitimate suppliers" within the Republic of Ireland. The owner of Millstream Power Recycling Limited was named as Robert Hogg (43).

The Irish pork industry

The pork industry is the fourth biggest in Ireland's agriculture sector, worth around €

Euro

The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...

400 million per year to the Irish economy. The country's farms produce over 3 million pigs per annum, almost 50% of which are consumed within the Republic. The remainder is exported, heavily to the neighboring territories of Northern Ireland and Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

, but it also features in grocery stores and processed meats throughout two continents - Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

and Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

. In 2007, Ireland exported 113,000 tons

Tonne

The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...

of pig meat, nearly half of which went to the United Kingdom. Over 500,000 live pigs were also shipped to the UK for slaughter and processing in that country. Ireland's other major customers of its pork are Germany, the buyer of 9,000 tons in 2007; France, Italy and several countries within the boundaries of Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...

, which together purchased over 20,000 tons, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, the buyer of 6,600 tons, and China, which came into the ownership of 1,100 tons.

Effects

Within two days of the first announcement 1,800 jobs have been lost in the Irish pig industry with a further 6,000 jobs said to be at risk by Ireland's largest trade union SIPTU. Ireland's largest pig meat processor, Rosderra Irish Meats Group Ltd., turned away all of its 850 employees at four plants on 8 December, telling them to sign up for state unemployment benefits. Workers in the pork industry who have been laid off in the wake of the crisis, including those from affected plants in Edenderry, Waterford and Kilkenny, were to carry out a lunchtime protest at Leinster House

Leinster House

Leinster House is the name of the building housing the Oireachtas, the national parliament of Ireland.Leinster House was originally the ducal palace of the Dukes of Leinster. Since 1922, it is a complex of buildings, of which the former ducal palace is the core, which house Oireachtas Éireann, its...

(government buildings in Dublin) on 11 December. SIPTU was organising the demonstration citing "delays in resuming production" and the financial "dire straits" some workers are in as their reasons.
Processors have halted the slaughtering of pigs until the Irish government promises them financial reparation. 100,000 pigs could be slaughtered and the current estimated costs of the crisis stand at €100 million.

Local reactions

Within hours a number of local newspapers in Ireland including the Longford Leader and the Leitrim Observer
Leitrim Observer
The Leitrim Observer is the oldest newspaper in Leitrim and in Ireland. It is a weekly newspaper published every Wednesday and once competed with another newspaper called the Leitrim Post which has since closed down due to poor sales.-History:...

had reproduced copies of the same Press Association article.

National reactions

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland moved immediately to reassure the general public of Ireland. Speaking on RTÉ Radio

RTÉ Radio

RTÉ Radio is a department of Irish national broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann. RTÉ Radio broadcasts four analogue channels and five digital channels....

on the morning after the initial announcement, Deputy Chief Executive of the FSAI, Alan Reilly said it was "necessary as a precautionary measure" to remove all pork products from within the country. He said he "expected" pork products to be available again before the busy Christmas

Christmas

Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...

period got underway and is scheduled to meet government officials and retailers within hours. Irish hotels and guesthouses were immediately notified of the unfolding situation and asked to dispose of all their pork products by the Irish Hotels Federation. Some Tesco

Tesco

Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...

outlets initially only gave refunds for their own branded pork produce but have since begun issuing refunds to all affected Irish products. Superquinn

Superquinn

Superquinn is an Irish supermarket chain. Until 2005, the company was entirely privately held by the Quinn family. It is now a subsidiary of Select Retail Holdings Limited....

however gave full refunds. A helpline set up by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland had received 3,000 calls within 72 hours of the outbreak.

International reactions

The UK's Food Standards Agency

Food Standards Agency

The Food Standards Agency is a non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for protecting public health in relation to food throughout the United Kingdom and is led by a board appointed to act in the public interest...

has said it does not believe its country's consumers face "significant risk" but it is still awaiting confirmation from the Irish authorities that the affected products had not been exported to its neighbour. Chief Scientist Andrew Wadge stated on his FSA blog that because dioxins remain in the body for approximately 30 years, exceeding regulatory limits for a few days has an "insignificant" effect on the individual consumer. The Tolerable Daily Intake

Tolerable Daily Intake

Tolerable daily intake refers to the daily amount of a chemical that has been assessed safe for human being on long-term basis . Originally acceptable daily intake was introduced in 1961 to define the daily intake of a food additive which, during the entire lifetime, appears to be without...

standard sets a level that is without appreciable risk to health over a prolonged period.

In Asia, South Korea has banned imports and advised retailers to stop selling Irish produce, Singapore is following suit, whilst China has "provisionally" stopped importation. Japan has also said it may recall Irish pork products.

Press

Within twelve hours of the pork recall announcement, the international press was carrying the story and within thirty-six hours there were over 1,700 newspaper articles on the crisis globally. Tabloid The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...

announced the story as "Toxic Irish pork is swept off shelves" whilst the Daily Mirror opted for "Poison pork panic: Irish pigs were fed on plastic bags". Daily Express
Daily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...

ran the story under the banner headline "Shoppers told: Don't eat toxic Irish pork" and the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...

went with the headline "British shoppers 'may not be able to tell whether they have Irish poison pork in their fridge'". The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

had the headline "Shops rush to take Irish pork off shelves", warning that EU labelling laws meant pork originating in Ireland could have been labelled as British. Le Monde
Le Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...

had the top-five most e-mailed website headline "Dioxin alert in Irish pork" and The Straits Times
The Straits Times
The Straits Times is an English language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore currently owned by Singapore Press Holdings . It is the country's highest-selling paper, with a current daily circulation of nearly 400,000...

website had the crisis as its second most popular story. El País reported its concern that contaminated meat might have arrived in Spain via France and Portugal. The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, under the headline "Ireland investigating tainted pork" and The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

, under the headline "Ireland recalls pork products after dioxin test", covered the story in their own short ways. AFP

Agence France-Presse

Agence France-Presse is a French news agency, the oldest one in the world, and one of the three largest with Associated Press and Reuters. It is also the largest French news agency. Currently, its CEO is Emmanuel Hoog and its news director Philippe Massonnet...

had the headline "Ireland scrambles to contain pork cancer scare" and the Xinhua News Agency

Xinhua News Agency

The Xinhua News Agency is the official press agency of the government of the People's Republic of China and the biggest center for collecting information and press conferences in the PRC. It is the largest news agency in the PRC, ahead of the China News Service...

was one of the earliest news agencies to follow the story with headlines including "Irish police to investigate pork contamination". CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

tagged the story as "another red flag being waved over dinner tables this week with warnings from the Irish government not to eat its pork products", comparing the crisis to bovine spongiform encephalopathy

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy , commonly known as mad-cow disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease in cattle that causes a spongy degeneration in the brain and spinal cord. BSE has a long incubation period, about 30 months to 8 years, usually affecting adult cattle at a peak age onset of...

, bird flu

H5N1

Influenza A virus subtype H5N1, also known as "bird flu", A or simply H5N1, is a subtype of the influenza A virus which can cause illness in humans and many other animal species...

and the 2008 Chinese milk scandal

2008 Chinese milk scandal

The 2008 Chinese milk scandal was a food safety incident in the People's Republic of China, involving milk and infant formula, and other food materials and components, adulterated with melamine....

Return to shelves

Superquinn

Superquinn is an Irish supermarket chain. Until 2005, the company was entirely privately held by the Quinn family. It is now a subsidiary of Select Retail Holdings Limited....

has said it will have Irish pork, traceable to one farm in County Kilkenny

County Kilkenny

County Kilkenny is a county in Ireland. It is part of the South-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the city of Kilkenny. The territory of the county was the core part of the ancient Irish Kingdom of Osraige which in turn was the core of the Diocese of...

on shelves by 11 December, becoming the first Irish supermarket chain to do so. However as early as 7pm on December 10 Irish retailer Dunnes had approved Galtee ham back on shelves for sale.

Beef

Twenty one cattle farms in the Republic were discovered to have used the contaminated pig feed, whilst eight cattle farms used it in Northern Ireland. It was disclosed on December 18, 2008 that beef samples from the affected farms had dioxin levels between 100 and 400 times above the legal limit. The Irish authorities went to great lengths to insist that the threat to public health from Irish beef products, despite the extremely high dioxin levels, was insignificant. It was noted that the official announcement made no reference to the dioxin levels being 100 to 400 times the legal limit. In a statement the FSAI recommended "that cattle which are locked down from these 21 farms should now be slaughtered and not allowed enter the food chain". There is to be no public recall of Irish beef. The European Commission

European Commission

The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....

is being kept informed.

However, 3,000 animals from these herds have been slaughtered and have already entered the food chain since September. The UK's Food Standards Agency is conducting tests to assess the level of dioxins present in Northern Irish cattle herds.

Milk

One farm in Northern Ireland has been identified as having fed contaminated animal feed to dairy cattle. Northern Ireland's Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, Michael McGimpsey

Michael McGimpsey

Michael McGimpsey MLA is an Ulster Unionist Party Member of the Legislative Assembly for Belfast South who has twice served in the Northern Ireland Executive...

has announced restrictions on milk supplies in the province.

European Food Safety Authority's statement

In its statement issued on the 10 December 2008, The European Food Safety Authority

European Food Safety Authority

The European Food Safety Authority is an agency of the European Union that provides independent scientific advice and communication on existing and emerging risks associated with the food chain, created by European Regulation 178/2002....

(EFSA) considered that the levels of dioxin & dioxin like PCBs

Polychlorinated biphenyl

in Irish pork, before the contaminated pork was withdrawn, posed no risk to health. The EFSA calculated a number of different exposure scenarios, and they found that if a consumer ate Irish pork each day over the 90 day period, 10% of which was contaminated, the "increase in the Body burden [would be] of no concern for this single event". In the "very extreme case" of eating large amounts of 100% contaminated Irish pork every day over the 90 day period in question, the EFSA considered that "this unlikely scenario would reduce protection, but not necessarily lead to adverse health effects".

However the EFSA warns that its calculations are "Based on the very limited new data related to the current contamination incident of pork, which were made available to EFSA" and concludes its statement with the "EFSA based this statement on a limited data set". It also makes clear that its calculations assumed that exposure at these high levels only began in September 2008. If it is found that the animal feed had been contaminated prior to September 2008 then it will have to reevaluate its findings. The statement did not address the issue of contaminated beef.

Criminal investigation

A criminal investigation commenced in December 2008 and on the 6th of March 2010 it was reported in the Irish Times that a criminal prosecution will be taken in relation to the incident.

Civil case

Millstream Recycling Ltd. has taken a civil case against Mr Gerard Tierney, Newtown Park Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin and against his company Newtown Lodge Ltd, Fairview, Dublin. Millstream claims its pig feed products were contaminated by “defective” oil supplied by Mr Gerard Tierney and his company Newtown Lodge Ltd.

Past contamination incidents

External links

Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI)
RTÉ online news coverage
Pork contamination at the Irish Examiner
Irish Examiner
The Irish Examiner, formerly The Cork Examiner and then The Examiner, is an Irish national daily newspaper which primarily circulates in the Munster region surrounding its base in Cork, though it is available throughout the country...
RTÉ information on Irish pork recall
FSAI Dioxins factsheet
Dioxins and PCBs explained (video)
Irish Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
Millstream Recycling Ltd. website (Google cache)

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