FMD Pyres Produce Lethal Dose of Dioxins
LONDON, 22 April 2001 -- Britain's foot and mouth pyres are creating more lethal pollutants than all the country's most toxic factories combined, the Independent on Sunday said.
It said published government figures showed that in the six weeks to April 6, in which some 500,000 animals have been burned, 63 grams of toxic dioxins have been emitted.
Dioxins are carcinogens 1,000 times more lethal than arsenic, and a suspected cause of birth defects, the newspaper said.
The World Health Organisation recommends that the average-sized person should be exposed to no more than around 30 billionths of a gram each year.
Britain's most polluting factories produce around 88 grams in a year. At any one time, the pyres, a familiar sight in the country since the start of the epidemic, produce far more dioxins than these factories.
Source: Reuters/New Straits Times
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