Subscription Center
Dec 9, 2008 04:00 AM | 2
The Irish apparently poisoned their pigs—accidentally feeding them food contaminated with dioxin, a toxic by-product of combustion that causes cancer. This is not just bad news for pigs, this is bad news for the ham and sausage consumers in 21 countries, not including the U.S.—so far.
Ireland has urged consumers worldwide to dump pork products from their country that have been purchased since September 1. Of course, most of those pork products—bacon, sausage, ham, etc.—have probably already been consumed.
Eating one or two tainted sausages won't be enough to kill you, or tip the balance in favor of cancer most likely, but the pig feed, when tested, did contain as much as 200 times the acceptable safety limit for dioxin levels. More than 100,000 pigs will be killed—and not eaten—as a result of the contamination, according to Irish authorities. And the scandal may spread to Irish beef as well; investigations are ongoing.
The finding prompted recalls of an estimated $161 million worth of Irish pork products throughout Ireland, Europe and Asia. Some might argue that sausage itself is a toxic by-product that causes cancer and other health problems, but that's another story. Salted, spiced, repackaged offal, what's not to love? I know I do.
Credit: ©istockphoto.com
Tags:
irish pork recall,
dioxin,
ireland,
sausage,
pork,
ham,
contamination,
pig,
recall,
bacon
More News Blog:
Next: E-prescribing leads to more, cheaper generic Rx fills
Previous: Dogs' Bark: Not fair! Study shows pups get jealous
See what we're tweeting about
sciencegoddess You're welcome and thanks for the #ff, @msauroraphd! @jackandraka @RealMissMSUSA @Vic_Lopez
sciam Will digital technology save or destroy education? Tell us: Nature & Scientific American student (& non-stud) survey http://t.co/U2lr7Ebt9S sciencegoddess .@ElsPietro @sciam @SkyNews Thanks! Happy to comment on @Cmdr_Hadfield's outreach!
Deadline: Jun 29 2013
Reward: $7,000 USD
The Seeker for this Challenge desires proposals for chemical methods that could rapidly degrade a dilute aqueous solution
Deadline: Jul 15 2013
Reward: $5,000 USD
SciBX: Science-Business eXchange, a joint publication from the makers
Powered By: 
YES! Send me a free issue of Scientific American with no obligation to continue the subscription. If I like it, I will be billed for the one-year subscription.
2 Comments
Add CommentWow....they are putting stuff in our food to kill us while idiots complain somebody might take a pill or smoke a joint to get high....sickening, just sickening.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat headline is not clever or amusing
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this