Potentially Harmful Flame Retardant Chemicals in Farmed Salmon

Higher Levels of Potentially Harmful Flame Retardant Chemicals in Farmed Salmon than in Wild

BLOOMINGTON, Ind., Aug 10 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A study released this week in the journal Environmental Science and Technology found much higher levels of some chemical flame retardants in farmed salmon compared to most wild salmon. The study concluded that, in spite of the heart healthy benefits of omega-3 fatty acids in all salmon, frequent consumption of farmed salmon is more likely than wild to boost levels of chemicals that researchers have found to be increasing rapidly in people's bodies.

Public health authorities are concerned about these substances, known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), because they have been associated in scientific studies with behavior and nervous system effects such as impaired learning and memory, reproductive effects, and endocrine system effects that could impair growth and development. The European Union and the state of California have banned several of these substances.

The group of flame retardant chemicals is used in electronics, upholstery, and other consumer products and migrate from the environment into the food web when these products are disposed. The amounts of PBDEs detected in people and wildlife appear to have doubled in North America every four to five years since the 1970s, a pace unmatched by any other contaminant. Electronics companies including Sony and Toshiba and at least one major furniture maker, Ikea, have phased out PBDEs from their products.

The findings released this week build on a January study published in Science which found that farmed salmon contained significantly higher levels of cancer-causing PCBs, dioxins, and some pesticides than did wild salmon. That study concluded that concentrations of some contaminants were so high that more than one meal of farmed salmon per month could pose unacceptable cancer risks. The majority of salmon served in restaurants and found on grocery store shelves is farmed rather than wild....cont'd

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=101-08102004

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Reason for Contamination

The authors concluded that the contamination problem is likely related to what farmed salmon are being fed. While most wild salmon eat a diverse diet of aquatic organisms from lower in the food chain, farmed salmon are fed a high fat diet containing a concentrated mixture of ground up fish and fish oil. Since chemical contaminants fish are exposed to during their lives are stored in their fat, the high fat farmed salmon food passes along more of these contaminants to the farmed salmon.

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) serve as flame retardants in a wide variety of commercial and household products. Annual sales of PBDEs are around 70,000 metric tons. PBDEs likely migrate from the products in which they are used into the environment, up the food chain, and into the human body through the use and disposal of plastics and foam containing PBDEs. Found in air, water, fish, birds, marine mammals, and people, PBDEs are now ubiquitous, and the concentrations of these compounds have increased markedly over the last 20 years.

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in the WATER!!!

Geesh-rocket fuel in lettuce, flame retardents in fish

Great just freakin' great.

After reading about all the antibiotics, dyes, and other shit they put in farm-raised salmon, I won't eat it.

My GOLDFISH are probably more fit to eat!

Next they'll be telling us the damn things carry "Mad Cow"...

:bounce:

This is ridiculous. And for what a few more dollars? Let's take the LONG view folks but then the RW bible thumpers don't care because they are so sure they are going to heaven anyway-also the man conquering nature teachings in the bible that I have heard about.

You just gave me a mental picture of a group of goldfish carrying an angry cow across the pasture.... cow has straight jacket... goldfish are struggling... funny... very funny. Tanks. :)

important information for everyone that needs to be disseminated everywhere.

Am printing it to send to the buyer of the grocery chain near me.

Good thing I don't smoke

eom

Wild Chinook Salmon Test Equal Or Higher Than Farmed For PBDE Content


The king of fish -- wild chinook salmon -- is turning up tainted with industrial-strength fire-retardant chemicals in the Pacific Northwest, showing just how far the compounds have spread in the environment. Wild chinook tested in Oregon and British Columbia had levels of the chemicals -- polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs -- that were as high or higher than farmed salmon, according to a global study released today.

The research was the latest blow to the good-for-your-body reputation of salmon, which is packed with heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. A prior study by the same researchers recently found troubling levels of PCBs, a known carcinogen, in farm-raised salmon.

Although PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, have been banned for decades, their chemical cousin, PBDEs, are still in production around the world. Bans in Europe, California and Maine will kick in over the next few years, and U.S. manufacturers voluntarily are stopping production of some forms of the fire retardant.

EDIT

The toxicity of PBDEs isn't fully understood, but the fish-contamination study concerns health officials and environmentalists.
"The bottom line here is pointing out ... we have a problem with PBDEs," said Rob Duff, director of the Washington Health Department's Office of Environmental Health Assessment. "They're rising in the environment. The levels are getting up there." PBDEs can harm neurological development and function."...>


http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/185566_salmon10.html