Dioxin affair

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The Dioxin affair (French: Crise de la dioxine, Dutch: Dioxinecrisis) was a political scandal that occurred in Belgium in 1999. Animal food products, mainly chicken and eggs, were found to be contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), a dioxin-like class of compounds known for their negative health effects. PCB was detected and reported by health inspectors in January, but measurements were taken by the government only from May when the Belgian media revealed the case to the public. Flemish Liberals and Democrats (VLD) opposition leader Guy Verhofstadt claimed that the government was trying to cover-up the scandal, which proved that several secretaries of state had been informed much earlier that the food contained PCBs and dioxins. The Dioxin affair was the one of a series of highly publicised scandals in Belgium during the 1990s, including the Agusta scandal, the "Hormone Mafia", and the Dutroux affair. It was exposed shortly before the 1999 Belgian federal and regional elections, and contributed to the historic defeat of Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene and his Christian People's Party.