Wes
Very Active Member
- Messages
- 1,165
By Tom Avril
Knight Ridder News Service
PHILADELPHIA -- Farm-raised salmon, a popular fish on American supermarket shelves, is so contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals that people should eat it no more than once a month, a new study says.
The 14 chemicals studied, most of them pesticides, all are banned in the United States. But they can linger for decades in the environment and in the human body, and are present in the smaller fish that are ground up and fed to salmon raised in giant ocean cages.
Wild salmon have much lower levels of contaminants and are safer to eat, the study found.
The controversial study in today's issue of the journal Science, initially rejected for publication until the authors toned it down slightly, throws yet another wrench into the consumer's search for safe, healthy food.
"You've got mad cow disease. You've got Atkins diet and low-carb. And you've got mercury in fish, and now organics in fish," said David Carpenter, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University of Albany and one of the authors of the study.
Salmon has long been recommended for its high level of fatty acids, which are good for the heart and brain, and because it has relatively low levels of mercury, another contaminant found in fish.
The study tested contaminants in 700 wild and farmed salmon bought around the world and found those farmed in Northern Europe contained the most pollutants, followed by North America and then Chile.
Fishing industry groups denounced the study even before it was released, and the Food and Drug Administration said farm-raised salmon are safe to eat.
The study "will likely over-alarm people in this country," Eric Rimm of the Harvard School of Public Health, a specialist on nutrition and chronic disease said.
One fact not in dispute: The amount of at least one chemical measured in salmon was far below the danger level established by the FDA. (Most of the other chemicals do not have established standards for safe consumption, though all are suspected carcinogens.)
With polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), the salmon measured 50 parts per billion or less, while the FDA standard is 2,000 parts per billion.
But authors said that standard, set in 1984, was outdated. They based their analysis on the far more stringent guidelines used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to recommend numbers of meals per month.
FDA officials rejected the notion that their approach was outdated, citing new agency programs to reduce contaminants in fish feed.
"We do not see a public health concern here," said Terry Troxell, director of the FDA's office of plant and dairy foods and beverages, referring to the new study. "If anything, we'd like to see people eat more" fish, he said.
Carpenter said the health dangers go beyond the cancer risks analyzed in the study, warning that a pregnant mother can harm the brain development of her developing baby by eating too much salmon.
What next? I wonder what the people that conduct these studies eat. According to their theories nothing is safe to eat. Maybe they should starve themselves to death for their own protection! As for me I'm gonna eat whatever I like and die fat and happy!
Wes
Screw the endangerd snails, save the Cowboy
Knight Ridder News Service
PHILADELPHIA -- Farm-raised salmon, a popular fish on American supermarket shelves, is so contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals that people should eat it no more than once a month, a new study says.
The 14 chemicals studied, most of them pesticides, all are banned in the United States. But they can linger for decades in the environment and in the human body, and are present in the smaller fish that are ground up and fed to salmon raised in giant ocean cages.
Wild salmon have much lower levels of contaminants and are safer to eat, the study found.
The controversial study in today's issue of the journal Science, initially rejected for publication until the authors toned it down slightly, throws yet another wrench into the consumer's search for safe, healthy food.
"You've got mad cow disease. You've got Atkins diet and low-carb. And you've got mercury in fish, and now organics in fish," said David Carpenter, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University of Albany and one of the authors of the study.
Salmon has long been recommended for its high level of fatty acids, which are good for the heart and brain, and because it has relatively low levels of mercury, another contaminant found in fish.
The study tested contaminants in 700 wild and farmed salmon bought around the world and found those farmed in Northern Europe contained the most pollutants, followed by North America and then Chile.
Fishing industry groups denounced the study even before it was released, and the Food and Drug Administration said farm-raised salmon are safe to eat.
The study "will likely over-alarm people in this country," Eric Rimm of the Harvard School of Public Health, a specialist on nutrition and chronic disease said.
One fact not in dispute: The amount of at least one chemical measured in salmon was far below the danger level established by the FDA. (Most of the other chemicals do not have established standards for safe consumption, though all are suspected carcinogens.)
With polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), the salmon measured 50 parts per billion or less, while the FDA standard is 2,000 parts per billion.
But authors said that standard, set in 1984, was outdated. They based their analysis on the far more stringent guidelines used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to recommend numbers of meals per month.
FDA officials rejected the notion that their approach was outdated, citing new agency programs to reduce contaminants in fish feed.
"We do not see a public health concern here," said Terry Troxell, director of the FDA's office of plant and dairy foods and beverages, referring to the new study. "If anything, we'd like to see people eat more" fish, he said.
Carpenter said the health dangers go beyond the cancer risks analyzed in the study, warning that a pregnant mother can harm the brain development of her developing baby by eating too much salmon.
What next? I wonder what the people that conduct these studies eat. According to their theories nothing is safe to eat. Maybe they should starve themselves to death for their own protection! As for me I'm gonna eat whatever I like and die fat and happy!
Wes
Screw the endangerd snails, save the Cowboy
