Supermarkets took precautionary measures by withdrawing some cartons, and Aldi in Germany even stopped selling eggs outright. The chemical is completely banned for use on farm animals: Researchers link fipronil to a range of human health problems and point to a particular danger for children. [...]
“The German federal minister is denying the health threats and speaks of an average German consumption,” Meyer said. “If a child only eats as many eggs as Germans eat on average per month, then that would not be dangerous. But if the child eats … one egg a day, then there’s already a breach of the acute threat level for children regarding that poison — so you see I believe we have to state clearly that there is a possible threat to children’s health.”
The full scale of the problem is still unclear as results of Belgian and German tests are expected in the coming days. It also remains to be seen whether the scandal is limited to eggs, or whether fipronil will transpire to be a risk in cakes and pasta too, as well as chicken itself. [...]
The issue exploded into a major scandal this week. The NVWA closed 180 farms — which together produce some 40 million eggs a week — and said it had found one farm producing such high levels of fipronil that they posed an “acute danger to public health.” The Netherlands warned on Thursday that eggs from 59 producers should not be served to children.
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