It is still not recommended to consume eggs from domestic henhouses in Ile-de-France. The department’s regional health agency (ARS) maintained this recommendation on Monday due to “contamination” by “persistent organic pollutants”. However, it restricted it to some 400 municipalities in the Paris metropolitan area.
Its definitive study “confirms ubiquitous (generalized) contamination of soils and eggs of domestic chickens in Paris and in the departments of the inner suburbs by persistent organic pollutants (dioxins, furans, polychlorinated biphenyls, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances). PFAS),” said the ARS in a press release.
A potential effect on reproductive and immune functions
However, regular consumption, “several times a week and for several years”, of eggs produced in domestic henhouses leads to “overexposure to pollutants compared to the general population and therefore an increased risk of developing health effects”. explains the agency.
These pollutants have in particular “a potential endocrine disrupting effect which can trigger chronic diseases and act on the development of reproductive and immune functions”.
Nearly 410 municipalities concerned
The ARS Ile-de-France carried out a regional study of “persistent organic pollutant levels” in 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 waste incinerator in Ivry-sur-Seine.
After having recommended, in April, “as a precautionary measure” not to consume eggs from domestic henhouses throughout Île-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 the municipalities of Seine-Saint-Denis, Hauts-de-Seine, Val-de-Marne, certain municipalities of Seine-et-Marne, Yvelines, Essonne and Val -d’Oise), according to the press release.
Children, pregnant and breastfeeding women particularly affected
The ARS considers in fact that “the quality of the soil is similar throughout the urban unit of Paris”, where “the dense urban agglomeration continues beyond the departments of the inner suburbs, with municipalities of large suburbs presenting similar urban contexts.”
If children, pregnant women and breastfeeding women are particularly exposed, the recommendation concerns the entire population of the 410 municipalities concerned. Consumption of eggs from domestic henhouses less than once a week remains “possible, but particularly not recommended” for these three population categories.