Guidelines for workers at risk from BSE urged

AN environmental health officer with South Dublin County Council has called for guidelines to protect workers who might come into contact with BSE in the workplace.

Mr Thomas Maguire, in a paper to be published this week in the Environmental Health Officers Association's Yearbook for 1997, also calls for the establishment of a department of food.

"Guidelines should be issued to relevant professions, particularly those occupationally exposed to high risk tissue such as brain," he says in a review of the BSEICJD crisis.

Mr Maguire also calls for guidelines for organisations involved in the preparation of pharmaceuticals derived from animal tissues.

Legislation enacted to ensure that BSE cannot enter the food chain must be vigorously enforced and all risks "ruthlessly suppressed", he says.

"While the Department of Agriculture is primarily concerned with the promotion of the Irish beef industry, it should not be forgotten that BSE is a public health issue and, for this reason, I am of the opinion that a new department of food should be established to examine and report on such issues."

A spokeswoman for the Department of Agriculture, responding to the call for safety guidelines, said the Department believed that infected animals would be detected before they came into contact with such workers.