Paris (AFP)
The first analyzes of a possible contamination of food products with dioxins in the area affected by the fire at the chemical plant Lubrizol in Rouen are "very reassuring," said Sunday the Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn.
"We have the first results that are very reassuring about dioxin on fodder, vegetables, fruits and in milk," said the minister on LCI.
"But we wait for additional samples to check (...) after a week of accumulation samples still remain below the thresholds recognized as those of the normal environment, and if it is, we can lift all the restrictions on food in the area that was affected by the fumes and fallout of the fumes from the fire, "she added.
After the incident occurred in a warehouse of this factory producing lubricants for cars, September 26, harvesting fruit and vegetables was banned in a hundred municipalities in Normandy and the Hauts-de-France.
Agnès Buzyn also declared that all risks related to asbestos were removed outside the industrial site and that hydrocarbons were only present as "traces" in the samples taken, but "nothing more" than normal pollution in Rouen.
The minister also confirmed that the neighboring company Lubrizol site, Normandie Logistique, also partially burned, still had not specified what products had burned among the 9,050 tons stored before the disaster.
"This is not a high ranked Seveso site," she said, "but we need to know exactly what kind of products were affected by the fire" to find out if "additional samples" need to be facts.
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