Fishy Stories – Contamination

As a result of human pollution of aquatic environments, eating fish flesh has become a major health hazard.  Industrial and municipal wastes and the agricultural chemicals flushed into the world's waters are absorbed by the Fish who live there.  Big fish, such as tuna and salmon, eat smaller fish.  So, in general, the bigger the fish, the greater the accumulation of toxic chemicals throughout their flesh. 

Pollutants that concentrate in fish include pesticides polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs); toxic metals such as lead cadmium, chromium and arson; dioxin's; and radioactive substances such as strontium 90.  Because of biological magnification during movement of the food chain, pollutants can reach levels as high as 9 million times that of the water in which they live.  These pollutants have been linked to many health problems, including impaired behavioral development in children.  Nursing infants consume half of their mothers load of PCBs, dioxin, DDT, and other toxic chemicals.  These toxins have been linked to cancers, nervous system disorders, feel damage, and many other damaging health affects.  Dr. Neil Bernard, director of physicians Committee for responsible Medicine, describes fish as a " mixture of fat and protein, seasoned with toxic chemicals."

Higher mercury levels in mothers who each significant amounts of fish have been associated with birth defects, mental retardation, seizures, cerebral palsy, and development disabilities in their children.  A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) analysis released in 2004 indicated that about 630,000 of the 4 million children born annually in the U.S. our risk of impaired motor function, learning capacity, memory, and vision -- due to higher levels of mercury in their bloodstreams. 

The Food and Drug Administration and the EPA have advised that groups most sensitive to mercury -- women of childbearing age and young children should not eat swordfish, king mackerel, or shark because they are high in Mercury.  Removing fish from the diet eliminates half of all mercury exposure and reduces one's intake of other toxins. 

"Farmed " salmon contains even more contaminants than flesh from wild-caught salmon.  As reported in Science, an analysis of over 2 tons of flesh from salmon " farmed " in different countries indicated toxic levels of PCBs, dioxins, and banned insecticides such as toxaphene.  The risks are so great that the EPA's guidelines suggested that no one should eat flesh from " farm " salmon more than once a month.  The authors of the Science report warned that girls and young women should eat even less because pregnant women can pass on fish-fleshed contaminants to their fetuses, comparing mental of development and immune-system function.  Two studies published in 2003 in the Journal of Chemosphere also reported elevated levels of PCBs, and certain chemicals, including flame retardant, in flesh from
"farmed " salmon.  Most salmon in U.S. markets today are farmed.

Reference:  Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D. author of of Judaism and Vegetarianism, Professor Emertrius at College of Staten Island.  Vegetarian Voice and volume 28, number one

A tragic results of this is that breast feeding has been outlawed by the government in Greenland.  This is due to the fact that the native Eskimo population there uses fish as their primary diet.  Air contamination from the USA is picked up by the jet stream winds and ends up being deposited in the waters and area of agreement.
     Reference:  LA Times, 2004