The EcoOceans Center, the Latin American Environmental Conflicts Observatory (OLCA) and the Citizen Consumers League have called on all Chileans to abstain from eating pork during the national holidays of Sep. 18-19. On Jul. 3, South Korea for the first time detected a high concentration of dioxins — a known carcinogen — in a shipment of pork from Chile.

Although officials assure that the population is not at risk, the activists have asked the Chamber of Deputies to set up an investigative committee and the government to create a food safety agency.

OLCA representative Lucio Cuenca told Tierramérica that they are demanding that the authorities release information about the sources of contamination, a list of the affected factories, and the destination of the shipments returned from South Korea. They are also asking for guarantees that the contaminated meat is properly disposed of.