Archived press release

Salmon Contaminated With Cancer-Causing Chemicals, Study Shows

8 January 2004

Friends of the Earth today called for stricter controls and an improved food labeling regime for fish following a study in the authoritative journal, Science, which showed higher levels of cancer-causing pollutants in farmed salmon on sale in supermarkets compared with salmon caught wild [1].

The study, which looked at 700 farmed and wild salmon from eight major salmon-producing regions, concluded that the contamination levels in farmed salmon on sale in Europe were so high that consumers should only eat one portion every two months to avoid an increased risk of cancer. The fish, sampled from wholesale and supermarket outlets, were contaminated with a range of persistent chemicals, including PCBs, dioxins, dieldrin and toxaphene [2].

Farmed salmon on sale in Europe was found to be generally more contaminated than salmon farmed in North and South America. Farmed salmon on sale in Scotland was found to have the highest levels of contamination, with the authors suggesting it would be unadvisable for consumers to eat more than one portion of supermarket salmon every two months.

Friends of the Earth is calling for clearer labelling so that consumers can tell whether the fish they are buying is wild or farmed, and where it has come from.

Friends of the Earth Chemicals Campaigner Mary Taylor said:

"This study shows yet again how the use of persistent chemicals contaminates our environment and food sources, which can be magnified by intensive farming practices. Consumers and retailers alike should be shocked by these findings. As the study says, better labelling and consumer information would allow consumers to minimise the risks, but we also need to ensure that new chemicals legislation properly protects the environment from persistent chemicals in the long run."

Notes

[1] ARTICLE #17: "Global Assessment of Organic Contaminants in Farmed Salmon," by R.A. Hites at Indiana U. in Bloomington, IN; J.A. Foran at U. of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI; D.O. Carpenter at U. at Albany in Rensselaer, NY; M.C. Hamilton at AXYS Analytical Services in Sidney, BC, Canada; B.A. Knuth and S.J. Schwager at Cornell U. in Ithaca, NY.

Published in the journal Science: www.eurekalert.org/jrnls/sci/index.php

[2] Dioxins and PCBs are implicated in causing cancers, hormone disruption, developmental and neurological problems. They accumulate in the fatty tissues of animals and humans.

Key findings include:

"PCB, dioxin, toxaphene, and deldrin concentrations were highest in farmed salmon from Scotland and the Faroe Islands and lowest in farmed salmon from Chile and Washington state."

"Farmed salmon fillets purchased from supermarkets in Frankfurt, Edinburgh, Paris, London and Oslo were generally the most contaminated"

"The combined concentrations of PCBs, toxaphene and deldrin trigger stringent consumption advice for farmed salmon purchased from wholesalers and for store-bought farmed fillets."

"The most restrictive advice (less than one-half meal of salmon per month), which reflects the highest health risks, was generated for farmed salmon fillets purchased from stores in Frankfurt, Germany, and for farmed salmon from Scotland and the Faroe Islands. The concentrations of PCBs, toxaphene, and deldrin trigger EPA consumption advice of no more than 1 meal per month for all samples of farmed salmon and for all but two samples of store-bought salmon, for which the advice is no more than 2 meals per month."

"this study suggests that consumption of farmed salmon may result in exposure to a variety of persistent bioaccumulative contaminants with the potential for an elevation in attendant health risks."

"consumption of farmed Atlantic salmon may pose risks that detract from the beneficial effects of fish consumption."

Science summary of paper:

Contaminants in Farmed Salmon: Farmed Atlantic salmon contain significantly higher concentrations of PCBs and many chlorinated pesticides than wild Pacific salmon, according to an analysis of more than two metric tons of farmed and wild salmon from around the world. The authors also report that

European-raised salmon tend to carry higher loads of these organochlorine contaminants than salmon raised in North and South America. They cite the need for additional studies on salmon feed which is high in fish meal and fish oil and a likely source of the contamination. The authors focused additional analysis on a subset of the contaminants -- PCBs, dioxins, toxaphene and dieldrin -- because an abundance of human health risk information is available for these compounds. Applying a cancer risk analysis developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the authors show that contaminant levels in some farmed salmon may be high enough to detract from the health benefits of eating fish. This paper, however, reports contaminant levels in the salmon themselves and supplies no data on these contaminants in humans. The authors note that their study demonstrates the importance of labelling salmon as farmed and identifying the country of origin.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust