Wild Salmon Far More Healthy than Farmed Fare

[Guest guest]

Wild Salmon Far More Healthy than Farmed Fare

 

Wild Salmon Far More Healthy than Farmed Fare

 

A major study that tested contaminants in fish around

the world

concluded that farm-raised salmon have significantly

more dioxins

and other cancer-causing contaminants than salmon from

the wild.

 

Researchers stated that eating more than a meal of

farm-raised

salmon per month, depending on its country of origin,

could increase

the chances of having cancer in future years. Farmed

salmon in

Northern Europe ranked highest in pollutants, followed

by North

America and Chile.

 

Farm-raised salmon were found to contain higher

concentrations of 13

pollutants, including PCB's and dioxins, which are let

out when

industrial waste is burned. The average dioxin level

in farmed fish

was about 11 times higher than wild fish. Salmon

absorb these

pollutants through their environment, storing them in

fat that

people then eat. Therefore, consuming high levels of

these toxins is

believed to increase the risk of certain cancers and

affect brain

and fetus development in children.

 

" We are certainly not telling people not to eat fish…

We're telling

them to eat less farmed salmon, " said David Carpenter

of the

University at Albany, N.Y, who performed tests on 700

salmon from

all over the world.

 

The study blames the feed used by fish farmers for

these high levels

of toxins because the fish food used on farms

concentrates ocean

pollutants. According to Carpenter, farmed salmon eat

lots of fish

oil and meal made from just a few species of ocean

fish, which

concentrates the contaminants they are exposed to,

while wild salmon

eat a greater variety.

 

The salmon farming industry says that the results of

the study show

that the pollutant levels are well within the FDA's

legal limits.

The FDA replied by stating the amount of pollutants

found in salmon

should not cause significant concern, explaining that

the tests were

performed on raw salmon, with the skin on. If the skin

was removed

and grilled, large amounts of dioxins and other

accumulated

pollutants in the fish fat would be killed.

 

But many groups say that the focus should not be on

acceptable

levels of pollutants set by the government, but rather

on ways to

reduce toxins. " These fish don't have to be

contaminated, " stated

Jane Houlihan of the Environmental Working Group.

 

Houlihan's group and others advocate for simply

changing feeding

practices on fish farms. According to the trade group

Salmon of the

Americas, farmers in the U.S., Canada and Chile who

are replacing

some of the fish oil in salmon feed with soybean and

canola oil have

seen annual drops in PCB levels of 10 to 20 percent.

 

The practice of farming salmon in floating pens began

just 20 years

ago. Now more than half of the world's salmon is

farmed, turning the

fish from a seasonal food to a year-round product.

 

http://www.citizens.org/news/newsletter/2004/january_16,_2004.cfm

_________________

JoAnn Guest

mrsjoguest

www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Genes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

____