According to the regional health agency, regular consumption of these eggs leads to “overexposure to pollutants and therefore an increased risk of developing health effects”.
The regional health agency (ARS) of Ile-de-France maintained, Monday, November 20, its recommendation not to consume eggs from domestic henhouses due to a “contamination” by “persistent organic pollutants”but restricted it to some 400 municipalities in the Paris metropolitan area.
His definitive study “confirms ubiquitous contamination [généralisée] soils and eggs from domestically farmed chickens in Paris and the inner suburbs by persistent organic pollutants (dioxins, furans, polychlorinated biphenyls, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – PFAS)”said the ARS.
As a result of this contamination, regular consumption, “several times a week and for several years”eggs produced in domestic henhouses results in “overexposure to pollutants compared to the general population and therefore an increased risk of developing health effects”explains the agency.
“Potential endocrine disrupting effect”
These pollutants have notably “a potential endocrine disrupting effect that can initiate chronic diseases and act on the development of reproductive and immune functions”. ARS Ile-de-France studied the “persistent organic pollutant levels” on eggs from 25 domestic henhouses in the Ile-de-France region, after an alert on the concentration of dioxins in non-marketed eggs from henhouses located near the Ivry-sur-Seine waste incinerator (Val-de-Marne).
After having recommended, in April, “as a precautionary measure”, not to consume eggs from domestic henhouses throughout Ile-de-France, the ARS confirms this recommendation but restricts it to eggs laid in the Paris metropolitan area, i.e. 410 municipalities, including Paris, all of the municipalities of Seine-Saint-Denis, Hauts-de-Seine, Val-de-Marne, certain municipalities of Seine-et-Marne, Yvelines, Essonne and Val-d’Oise. The list of these municipalities is available on the INSEE website.
If children, pregnant women and breastfeeding women are particularly exposed, the recommendation concerns the entire population of these municipalities. Consumption of eggs from domestic henhouses less than once a week remains “considerable, but particularly not recommended” for these three population categories.