Salmon & PCB’s

[LadyFish]

If You Love Salmon, This Will Scare You<br /><br />Packed with omega-3 fatty acids, salmon is one of the healthiest foods you can eat. Or is it? The Environmental Working Group has issued a scary report indicating that farm-raised salmon--but not the kind that is fished out of streams and rivers--is contaminated with high levels of cancer-causing chemicals called polychlorinated biphenyls, more commonly known as PCBs, report Reuters and The New York Times.<br /><br />EWG purchased and tested salmon filets from 10 different grocery stores in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Portland, Oregon. Seven of the 10 filets contained high levels of PCBs. "These first-ever tests of farmed salmon from U.S. grocery stores show that farmed salmon are likely the most PCB-contaminated protein source in the U.S. food supply," the non-profit environmental investigative group said in a prepared statement.<br /><br />We eat a lot of salmon. About one-quarter of all adult Americans--that would be 52 million people--eat salmon and about 23 million of those eat it more than once a month. "Based on these data we estimate that 800,000 people face an excess lifetime cancer risk...from eating farmed salmon." <br /><br />EWG found that farmed salmon had 16 times the PCBs found in wild salmon, four times the levels in beef, and 3.4 times the levels found in other seafood. The New York Times notes that while the PCB levels in salmon are high, they do not exceed those set in 1984 by the FDA for commercially sold fish; however, they do exceed the guidelines set by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1999 for recreationally caught fish. Although this study by EWG has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal, the findings are supported by other studies done in Canada, Ireland, and Britain--all of which has forced the hand of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which will now review the problem.<br /> More...

 

[NOSLEEP]

Re: Salmon & PCB’s

That finding doesn't surprise me, If we only new <br />the half, of what really is in the food chain, we<br />probably would have very little left to eat with<br />out putting us at risk for something.

 

[wikelam]

Re: Salmon & PCB’s

nowadays everything is harmful to us.

 

[roscoe]

Re: Salmon & PCB’s

I'm curious as to what they consider "farm raised"?<br /><br />I thought farmed salmon were released into the wild to do their stream/ocean/stream cycle, and when they returned to their release point to reproduce, they are netted out of the stream.<br /><br />There's really nothing new here. There have been warnings of heavy metal accumulations in fatty fish for years.<br /><br />They just keep lowering the standard of what they say is acceptable. We have a 2 year new water plant in our town of 800 households. Had to finance it for a gazillion years ($6000 per house) in order to meet the new epa regs. Now they want us to take out the naturally occurring copper, because they lowered the standard. Another $2 million to upgrade a 2 year old plant. $2500 per house, plus interest.<br /><br />And they want me to replace my septic system. Not because it is failing, but not in compliance with their new standards. $14,000 for what they want. And I still live in between 2 farms, where 400 holsteins are dumping 15,000 pounds of waste on the ground, daily. ????<br /><br />Sorry, rambling.<br /><br />Eat what you want.

 

[cotterman]

Re: Salmon & PCB’s

every day a new study comes out saying this and that is bad for you...soon there'll be nothing left to eat,drink breathe.......<br /><br />i'm with roscoe..eat what you want!

 

[kev_alaska]

Re: Salmon & PCB’s

Ladyfish and all, although farmed salmon is scorned up here, I would be pretty hesitant to accept the findings of the "EWG". The FDA inspects the farmed fish along with all of the other imported foods we get here in the U.S. <br /><br />The Environmental Protection Agency levels of the PCB level is sometimes 500 times lower than the FDA levels. That makes it pretty hard to pass the grade no matter what source your fish come from. <br /><br />The EWG is a pseudo scientific group that is funded by several leftist social activism groups that have definite agendas concerning business and have made no bones pushing their extreme environmental viewpoints. The Pew Foundation, the W. Alton Jones Foundation and the Turner Foundation are major funding sources for this group. <br /><br />I don't like farmed fish either. I am lucky enough to be where I can harvest my own without thinking about the ingredients.....

 

[dolsen]

Re: Salmon & PCB’s

Simple, dont eat farm raised salmon. Wild and hatcery fish will have the samePCBs none. The "grocery store bought" stuff is almost always pen raised because of lower cost. The fish eat sleep and poo in the same water. I only eat what i catch as far as salmon goes because of the lack of the crud associated with pen raised salmon. BTW, they inject hormones in the fish to get the pink color. Ick. Natural spawning salmon whether hatchery or wild will not have the PCBs that you see with the pen raised. Im glad i live in the NW.

 

[LadyFish]

Re: Salmon & PCB’s

Kev_Alaska, thanks those are very interesting facts.

 

[Capn Mike]

Re: Salmon & PCB’s

Roscoe, NR & Kev alluded to what was farmed fish and not, but to clarify: most Atlantic salmon and too much Pacific-type salmon (coho/silvers & chinook/king) are raised in pens created by netting off small bays on the two coasts. Farm raised salmon are treated no differently than farm raised catfish or Arkansas chickens: they're raised in the pens, fed hormone-laced food and artificially stimulated to grow faster. Kev is right...the food also includeds coloring to make that red glow we like so much. Then they're "harvested," usually after only 1 year. Native and hatchery fish all spend a normal life time (usually 3 years) circling (and growing) the Pacific until it's time to spawn.<br />Farmed fish look different, taste different and even smell different when cooked. Ugh. <br />Grocery stores up here all differenciate their farmed and wild-caught salmon by signs...and prices!

 

[miloman]

Re: Salmon & PCB’s

interesting post I can see how this occured it is why i dont buy fish from the stores I catch what I will consume in distant clean (i hope) waters

 

[Capn Mike]

Re: Salmon & PCB’s

see my other post on the taste of farm vs. wild. Here's another article in today's paper http://www.oregonlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/editorial/1062244657237361.xml?oregonian?edl <br /><br />Junk science at work <br /><br />09/02/03<br /><br />In its report on the safety of farmed salmon, the error-prone Environmental Working Group revealed only that the average concentration of PCBs in the fish was a small fraction of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's established safety limit ("PCB test pits farmed salmon vs. wild," July 30). <br /><br />The FDA has set a ceiling of 2,000 parts per billion, but the Environmental Working Group found an average concentration of only 27 parts per billion. The FDA has already affirmed that consumers "should not alter their consumption of salmon" because of the group's misleading report. <br /><br />This Environmental "Worrying" Group has a long history of using junk science to make the public needlessly fear its food, for the purpose of steering Americans toward more expensive organic (or in this case, "wild") options that aren't any safer or healthier to eat. The Environmental Working Group's shoddy work has been rightly criticized in the past by officials from the FDA, Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institutes of Health. <br /><br />DANIEL MINDUS Senior analyst Center for Consumer Freedom Washington, D.C. <br /><br />Copyright 2003 Oregon Live. All Rights Reserved.

 

[lakeman1999]

Re: Salmon & PCB’s

Living is bad for your health, and will kill you . Har, Har, Harityyy, Harr, harr.

 

[NOSLEEP]

Re: Salmon & PCB’s

Thanx for the update Capn Mike, <br />In todays world its very difficult to know if<br />what you read has any truth to it, or just the<br />interest of a special group.

 

[Skinnywater]

Re: Salmon & PCB’s

Just add a little cayenne pepper, you'll never taste the PCB's.