Study finds higher level of toxins in farmed salmon

Farm-raised salmon, a growing staple of American diets, contains significantly higher concentrations of PCBs, dioxin and other cancer-causing contaminants than salmon caught in the wild and should be eaten infrequently, according to a new study of commercial fish sold in North America, South America and Europe. The study, using Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) health guidelines, concluded that while consumers could safely eat four to eight meals of wild salmon a month, consumption of more than one eight-ounce portion of farmed salmon a month in most cases poses an "unacceptable cancer risk."

People in Washington, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle should not eat farmed salmon more than once or twice a month, the study advises.

The study of 700 store-bought samples from Frankfurt, Germany; Edinburgh, Scotland; Paris; London; and Oslo, Norway, generally were the most contaminated, while samples from stores in New Orleans and Denver were the least contaminated.

The two-year, $2.4 million study, funded by the Pew Charitable Trust and published yesterday in the journal Science, is the latest blow to the commercial-fish industry, already suffering from growing concerns about elevated levels of mercury in tuna and shellfish.

Officials of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the fishing industry immediately took issue with the findings. They said the contaminant levels in salmon have declined by 90 percent since the 1970s and the remaining "trace levels" do not warrant consumers denying themselves the high protein and cardiovascular health benefits of eating salmon.

"We've looked at the levels found ... and they do not represent a health concern," said Terry Troxell, director of the FDA's Office of Plant and Dairy Food and Beverages. "In the end, our advice is not to alter consumption of farmed or wild salmon."

In addition, the study tested salmon raw, with the skin on. Grilling the fish without its skin removes a significant amount of PCBs, dioxins and other pollutants stored in fish fat, the FDA noted.

The Pew study "will likely over-alarm people in this country," said Eric Rimm of the Harvard School of Public Health, a specialist on nutrition and chronic disease. "To alarm people away from fish because of some potential, at this point undocumented, risk of long-term cancer — that does worry me."

On average, farmed salmon has concentrations of health-threatening contaminants 10 times greater than those found in wild salmon, according to the study. EPA guidelines say that, if a person eats fish twice a week, it should contain no more than 4 to 6 parts per billion of PCBs. The study found that PCB levels in farmed salmon sold in the United States and Canada averaged about five times that amount: 30 parts per billion.

None of the levels exceeded standards set in 1984 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for commercially sold fish.

"Just because the contaminants we found do not exceed FDA levels, that doesn't mean they are safe for consumers to eat them," said Dr. David Carpenter, one of the study's six co-authors and a professor of environmental health and toxicology at the University of New York at Albany.

Aside from a slightly elevated cancer risk from these potential carcinogens, he said, the chief concern is that pregnant women can pass on these contaminants — which build up in body fat and linger for decades — to their fetuses, impairing IQ and immune function.

Young salmon occupy a freshwater pen at Kokish Hatchery, near Port McNeill on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Their next stop will be ocean pens at the shoreline.

The study also calls for the need to label whether salmon is wild or farm-raised. No law requires such labeling, although "Atlantic" salmon almost certainly comes from a farm because wild Atlantic salmon are extremely rare due to overfishing.

Farmed fish are believed to contain higher concentrations of contaminants than wild fish largely because they are fed a meal that consists of ground-up fish tainted with the contaminants, while wild salmon feed on smaller fish and tiny aquatic organisms.

Alex Trent, executive director of Salmon of the Americas, a group representing farmed-salmon producers in the United States, Canada and Chile, said his industry doesn't discount some of the health problems associated with PCB contamination of farmed salmon. However, he said, meat and dairy products, when eaten in large quantities, pose similar problems, and consumers would be foolish to deny themselves the health benefits of salmon.

Raising salmon in floating pens, a practice that began only two decades ago, has helped the fish's popularity to soar. More than half the world's salmon now is farmed and available year-round, while wild salmon generally is available June through October. Farm-raised salmon sells for about $4 or $5 a pound compared with $15 for wild salmon, Trent said.

Many farmers in the United States, Canada and Chile slowly are replacing some of the fish oil in salmon feed with soybean and canola oil to address the pollutants, he said.

"PCB levels are coming down 10 to 20 percent a year," Trent said. "Every year we take more steps."

In Washington state, Pan Fish U.S.A. operates farms that raise 8,000 to 9,000 metric tons of Atlantic salmon annually off Port Angeles, Anacortes and Bainbridge Island. It's roughly a $30 million industry — a fraction of the size of the industry in British Columbia. There, more than 80 fish farms across the western edge of Vancouver Island produce more than 70,000 tons of salmon, most of it headed straight for the United States.

Representatives of that industry argued yesterday that the research published in Science was misleading.

"There are five different species of Pacific salmon, and three of them eat lower on the food chain than Atlantic salmon do, so their contaminant numbers automatically are going to be lower, but they're not the ones we buy in the store," said Washington state Sen. Dan Swecker, R-Rochester, who represents Pan Fish through the Washington Fish Growers Association. "The fish we buy are coho and chinook, and those have similar levels, at least with PCBs."

In 1998, a study by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife found PCB levels in wild chinook in Puget Sound were actually higher than those found in farmed fish. Earlier studies suggest there are elevated PCB levels in premium Copper River Delta salmon, too, said Mary Ellen Walling, executive director of the British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association, in Campbell River, B.C.

"I don't want to get pulled in to the farmed versus wild debate," Walling said. "It's important to put this in the context that PCBs, unfortunately, just exist in the food chain.

"We're doing everything we can as an industry: We're re-sourcing our fish oil and fish meal for fish feed from the least contaminated sources possible. ... But the fact is, these are trace elements and they're in wild fish, too."

Both also argued that fish made up such a small portion of the average consumer's diet already that "the vast majority of PCBs in the diet come from beef, poultry and dairy," Swecker said. "The last thing we ought to do is reduce the consumption of fish."

One in two Americans will die of cardiovascular disease, a far bigger risk than the cancer concern, said nutritionist Alice Lichtenstein of the Agriculture Department's Human Nutrition Research Center at Tufts University.

Still, the study does raise a concern that needs more attention, she said: "The bottom-line message is to continue to eat fish but consume a variety of different types."

Rank	Location	Receipts	Donors/Avg	Freepers/Avg	Monthlies
57	Netherlands	20.00	1	20.00	12	1.67

From (this is long): http://www.acsh.org/publications/reports/pcupdate.html

"Executive Summary

Polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, are a family of more than 200 chemical compounds (congeners), each of which consists of two benzene rings and one to ten chlorine atoms. They were widely used in a variety of industrial applications due to their insulating and fire retardant properties. Concern about the presence of PCBs in the environment began in the 1960s, when PCBs were found in soil and water. Research confirmed that some PCB congeners degrade very slowly in the environment, and can build up in the food chain. In 1968, a widespread human poisoning episode in Western Japan (called "Yusho," or "oil disease"), was at first attributed to the consumption of rice bran oil contaminated with PCBs. Although subsequent analysis showed the presence of toxic thermal degradation products in the oil, which are now believed to have been responsible for the observed health effects, the Yusho incident and a similar incident in Taiwan ("Yu-Cheng") increased concern over the safety of PCBs. In the 1970s, commercial production of PCBs in the United States was restricted, and ended in 1979.
PCBs do not cause acute health effects in animals, except at extremely high doses. However, they have been shown to cause tumors in animals. Several regulatory and advisory agencies, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have determined that there is sufficient evidence to consider PCBs to be animal carcinogens. However, studies of workers exposed by inhalation and skin contact to high doses of PCBs over long periods of time have not demonstrated an increased risk of cancer. In fact, skin and eye irritation were the only health effects in the workers that could be attributed to PCBs.

In the Japan and Taiwan episodes mentioned above, consumption of PCB-contaminated rice bran oil resulted in a severe form of acne called chloracne, fatigue, nausea, and liver disorders. There was also an increase in liver cancer mortality in the Yusho incident, and an increase in mortality from other liver diseases in the Yu-Cheng incident. The levels of PCB in the blood of workers exposed to PCBs exceeded those of the Yusho and Yu-Cheng victims, yet the extent of toxicity was far greater in the Yusho and Yu-Cheng victims. This is believed to be due to the presence in the rice bran oil of substances generated from the thermal breakdown of PCBs. These substances, furans (similar to dioxins) and quaterphenyls, are far more toxic than PCBs.

Studies of people who ate PCB-contaminated fish showed that, while the quantity of fish consumed was correlated with PCB blood levels, there were no significant health differences between those who consumed a lot of fish and those with lower exposures. A 1996 study suggested that prenatal exposure to PCBs from maternal ingestion of contaminated fish is associated with neurodevelopmental effects in infants and children. However, this is inconsistent with studies that have found no relationship between maternal PCB exposure and infant birth weight or head circumference. Problems with study methodology, specifically, exposure assessment and selection of the control (comparison) group, further limit the interpretation of the 1996 study results. Furthermore, as the concentrations of PCBs in the maternal blood were only slightly greater than in the blood of subjects who did not report eating fish (and were within the range of PCB blood concentrations for North America), we should be witnessing a widespread phenomenon throughout North America if PCBs could indeed cause intellectual impairment in children. There is no evidence of widespread intellectual impairment among children; thus, warning parents is not warranted at this time.

It has been suggested that chemicals such as PCBs in the environment can mimic the body's natural hormones (e.g., estrogen), and that this "endocrine (hormone) disruption" can lead to infertility, certain types of cancer, and other hormone-related disorders. However, the evidence for the estrogenic effects of environmental PCBs—on either wildlife or humans—remains weak and circumstantial, and premature conclusions have been drawn based upon inadequate and incomplete evidence. Numerous researchers have characterized the hypothesis that environmental estrogens cause increased breast cancer or male reproductive problems as unproven and implausible.

In summary, there is no conclusive evidence that background PCB levels in the general population, or even the very high levels to which some occupational groups were exposed, have resulted in acute effects, increased cancer risk, "endocrine disruption," or widespread intellectual deterioration in children exposed to PCBs in utero. In fact, even those effects noted in PCB-exposed populations, e.g., chloracne, cannot be definitively linked to PCBs because of simultaneous exposure to other, known toxic agents, such as furans and quaterphenyls.

It is important to recognize that commercial and environmental PCBs consist of mixtures of individual PCB congeners. These congeners vary in their degree of toxicity, and the toxicity of any mixture is dependent upon the toxicity of the individual congeners. Laboratory studies of PCBs are, for the most part, conducted on the commercial product; however, environmentally degraded PCBs to which people may be exposed can differ in their composition and toxicity from the original commercial PCB mixture. Regulatory agencies are beginning to acknowledge this as an important factor in evaluating risk from exposure to PCBs in the environment.

Because of the ban on PCB production, decreasing use of PCBs, and efforts to remediate contaminated sites, general population exposure to PCBs in fish and other foods has been significantly reduced, and PCB levels in human blood are also decreasing. Industry and government should focus on the development of novel and cost-effective remediation and disposal techniques, as well as on scientifically improved health risk analysis to reduce the uncertainty associated with PCB exposure and health effects in humans."

I've been eyeing some farmed Atlantic salmon in the store recently. You can get it at the local fish market for $4.99/lb. (And usually for that price at Safeway.) I think farmed salmon is less dry than wild, although I can't tell the difference between the different species of wild salmon, so I'm sure there are subtle differences in taste that I'm missing.

Anyway, I have a nice, big pot roast sitting in the fridge that we have to eat through first before I can even think of making salmon for a while. But when I do:

JennyP's Salmon

(2) 1/2 lb. pieces of farmed Atlantic salmon fillet
1/4 c. Trader Joe's Wasabi Mayo
1/4 c. soy sauce
1-2 tbsp. wasabi paste

Blend the wasabi mayo, soy sauce, & wasabi paste together. It helps to microwave them first to warm them up.

Grill the salmon in a little olive oil.

Serve & drizzle the wasabi sauce on the luscious fillets.

Don't forget the Three Buck Chuck (Merlot) or Henry Weinhard's Private Reserve.

I recommend wild King salmon as the best - but it is pricey.

jimt's barbecued salmon

salmon filet
two cloves fresh garlic, chopped
one-half stick butter
juice of one lemon

two cups water soaked wood chips (in order of preference, alder, hickory, mesquite)
tinfoil

Melt the butter. Add the chopped garlic and let it stew for a bit. Remove from heat. Add the lemon juice. Keep liquid (warm) until use below.

Make a tinfoil pan for the wood chips that you can place under the grill. Fire up your barbeque. You want a moderate heat, less than you'd use to cook steaks. After your gas grill is heated up or your charcoal is ready, place the wood chips in their tinfoil pan under the grill. Get them smoking.

Place a layer of tinfoil on the grill big enough to accomodate the salmon, with the edges turned up. Place the salmon on the tinfoil and baste with the butter-garlic-lemon mixture.

Close the lid on the grill (or cover with more tinfoil to keep the smoke in).

Cook for about 12-15 minutes per inch thickness, or until it's the same color all the way through, but don't overcook or it will be dry. Don't undercook (as is so trendy now), or you may find out what types of parasites live in raw fish.

When serving, leave the skin and the gray fatty layer of meat on the tinfoil. Either ruins the flavor.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.