Despite the current conflict and the break in diplomatic relations between France and Libya, the city of Sète and its tourist heart continue to represent Libya, as always without problem, the regime of the famous colonel. Ten tuna fishing boats proudly claiming their homeport and their administrative and financial connections with Tripoli adorn the streets and terraces of the cafés. The riverboats in Sète departing the old city’s bridge leave to the right a part of the Libyan fleet while declaiming through a megaphone, “Since forever the tuna fishing boats of Sète fish for bluefin tuna exclusively in the Mediterranean.”

The ocean is still considered as a trash can. Radioactive releases by Japan are increased by a decrease of vigilance. What is occurring in the Pacific Ocean is probably inevitable. However it is not excusable nor should it be viewed as routine as many scientific experts in dispersion and farfetched comparison are currently stating. This type of practice would be impossible in the North East Atlantic. Contracting Parties to the OSPAR Convention follow carefully step by step the slow progression of iodine 131, of cesium 137 and of plutonium released by nuclear installations along the Channel and the North Sea to the Arctic Ocean.

Following the alert at the beginning of 2011 on the passing of the health threshold by PCBs and dioxins in a sample of milk, the investigation broadens to a perimeter of 3 km around Aprochim, placing today under total or partial isolation the livestock of 8 agricultural farms at Grez-en-Bouère and at Bouère in the Mayenne region. The quasi-totality of the investigation concerns the meat and the fat from meat. For the milk, the situation is fluctuating and to this day the commercialization of the production of only one farm is suspended. The chicken factory farms are not touched, but the official report must be consolidated when the chickens are liberated from their cages in the springtime. On the other hand, the diligent research by the Regional Agency of Health shows that eggs in domestic backyards contain PCB and dioxin levels superior to the national average. The geographic logic of the contamination designates Aprochim as principally responsible. Aprochim is one of the accredited installations in France for the decontamination of transformers and metallic masses contaminated by PCBs. It is operational since 1990 and has treated more than 200,000 tons of contaminated material. A neighboring business of Aprochim is susceptible to release PCBs and dioxins into the atmosphere; specialising in paint stripping of metallic items, it is in financial trouble and does not have sufficient funds to conduct an analysis of its atmospheric emissions.

Following the alert at the beginning of 2011 on the passing of the health threshold by PCBs and dioxins in a sample of milk, the investigation broadens to a perimeter of 3 km around Aprochim, placing today under total or partial isolation the livestock of 8 agricultural farms at Grez-en-Bouère and at Bouère in the Mayenne region. The quasi-totality of the investigation concerns the meat and the fat from meat. For the milk, the situation is fluctuating and to this day the commercialization of the production of only one farm is suspended. The chicken factory farms are not touched, but the official report must be consolidated when the chickens are liberated from their cages in the springtime. On the other hand, the diligent research by the Regional Agency of Health shows that eggs in domestic backyards contain PCB and dioxin levels superior to the national average. The geographic logic of the contamination designates Aprochim as principally responsible.

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