Burnt land poses toxic risk
Experts have called for a ban on animals grazing in agricultural areas that were ravaged in the recent fires as well as the monitoring of toxicity levels in this year’s yield of olive oil. Of some 280,000 hectares of forest and farmland burnt in this year’s fires, the great majority was «virgin forestland» and therefore would not have released high levels of dioxins when it burnt, according to Leontios Leontiadis of the Demokritos Center of Scientific Research in Attica. According to Leontiadis, the toxins were released from other sources. «This summer’s fires also affected illegal landfills and dumps, burning plastics which release dioxins into the atmosphere,» he said. But the impact of these dioxins on the environment was curbed as high winds spread the particles, he added. The toxic particles are not water-soluble and so will not have penetrated fruit and vegetables on cultivated fields near burnt areas, Leontiadis said. But these toxins can accumulate in the fatty tissue of animals. «Animals should be banned from grazing near burnt areas,» Leontiadis said. A ban has already been imposed on animals grazing in burnt areas so that the damaged land can be regenerated. According to Leontiadis, particular attention should be paid to the oil produced from olives culled from fire-afflicted areas. «Olives have the ability to absorb organic pollution,» Leontiadis said. He called for careful inspections to be carried out on the oil before it is distributed. The longtime impact of the toxins on the environment, and subsequently on human health, is difficult to determine, according to Ioanna Iliopoulou, a biology professor at Patras University. «EU levels only measure extreme toxicity at any one moment – we can only guess about the long-term toxic impact,» she said. Consumers are advised to avoid consuming the fatty parts of animal meat as these retain the toxins.
