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SV Drums of dioxin on back of truck
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SCU M Andre Futterknecht, director of Hoffman-La Roche speaking (FRENCH SOT)
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GV PAN French farmyard
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SV Reporters PAN TO drums of dioxin
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CU Former butcher interviewed by reporters (FRENCH SOT) (2 shots)
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Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: French army trucks removed 41 deadly drums of dioxin-contaminated waste from the northern French village of Anguilcourt on May 20. The waste, a poison ten thousand times more deadly than cyanide, was discovered after a two-month international search by French investigators, in an abandoned slaughter-house in the village. The waste appeared following a 1976 explosion at a chemical plant owned by the Swiss chemical firm, Hoffman-La Roche, at the Italian town of Seveso, near Milan. A director of Hoffman-La Roche, M Andre Futterknecht, told reporters that all the containers were intact. He said his firm would advise the French government on how to dispose of the 41 canisters of waste. M Futterknecht said he was shocked at the way the dioxin had been stored. The French Secretary of State for the Environment, Huguette Bouchardeau, said on May 20 that Hoffman-La Roche were responsible for an eight month cover-up of the whereabouts of the dioxin. However another Hoffman-La Roche director claim his company had been deceived by a waste management firm which contracted to remove the dioxin from Italy. Hoffman-La Roche said it was prepared to take responsibility for the disposal of the waste in conjunction with French authorities. A retired butcher, who owned the Anguilcourt slaughter-house, said that he was unaware of the contents of the drums which had been stored on his premises since last November.