(2004-01-11) Farmed Salmon Toxic

Farmed Salmon has been found to have higher levels of toxin than wild. Farmed salmon from supermarkets in Los Angeles, Washington DC., Seattle Wa, Chicago, NYC and Vancouver triggered a recommendation of no more than two salmon meals per month... The researchers also found toxin levels in European farm-raised salmon were significantly higher than in North American or South American farm-raised salmon... Hites and his colleagues also measured toxin levels in "salmon chow," a mixture of ground-up fish and oil fed to farm-raised salmon. They found a strong correlation between the toxicities of chow and salmon, suggesting toxins are passed into the salmon from their feed. (Sustainable Capitalism)

News Day notes * At Fairway in Plainview, one of the few markets that routinely labels Fish as farm-raised or wild, there was no shortage of other wild fish on Friday: mackerel, flounder, swordfish, snapper, Long Island porgy and Atlantic whiting... Some experts said that children and women of childbearing age probably should forego farmed salmon... "There are lots of reasons not to eat farm-raised salmon," said Peter Hoffman, national chair of Chefs Collaborative, a national organization that promotes seasonal, renewable cuisine, "and this is only one of them." Hoffman cited open-net salmon farming pens that lack waste treatment and have polluted coastal waters in communities in Maine and Nova Scotia. The Clean Water Act may force closure of some such fish farms. (Environmentalism) "It's important that people not think they have to eat salmon all the time," said Hoffman, chef and owner of Savoy, a restaurant in So Ho. "The thought of a fish being ubiquitous isn't natural. Why do you think you ought to be able to have it every day of the year? If you only want wild (fresh) salmon, then you don't eat it in January and you welcome it with great enthusiasm when the fishery opens in May." Alternatives Hoffman suggested include striped bass, black cod, blackfish and West Coast halibut...* A sidebar includes a history of other big health warnings: FDA continues to suggest all consumers cook sprouts before eating them.

Update: What is the appropriate standard? The $2.4 million Science study didn't really find anything new. It basically confirmed the smaller studies which found the highest PCB concentrations in farmed salmon at about 0.05 parts per million. In other words, the PCB concentrations in farmed salmon identified by the Pew funded researchers is about 40 times less than those believed safe by the FDA. Curiously, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends that consumers limit their consumption of fish containing more than 0.05 ppm to once a month - the standard adopted by the Pew funded researchers. Why the difference in standards? Purdue toxicologist Charles Santerre makes an analogy to the risks of wearing seat belts. As of January 1, Santerre became a technical advisor to the trade group Salmon Of America. According to Santerre, the EPA is setting a level at which 1 in 100,000 people who eat 8 ounces of salmon everyday for 70 years would get cancer. On the other hand, the FDA weighs both the risks and benefits of an activity - in this case eating salmon that provides strongly health promoting omega-3 fatty acids versus some small exposure to things like PCBs. Indeed farming salmon has dramatically lowered the price of the tasty fish, increasing the access of Lower Income people to the health benefits offered by omega-3 fatty acids. I would like to see further substantiation from someone not working for a trade group...