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Salmon Tales: What the Experts are Saying (Expert Criticism)

Below is a compilation of expert criticism of the January 9, 2004 study published in Science and entitled: “Global Assessment of Organic Contaminants in Farmed Salmon.” Comments have been compiled from various North American media outlets by the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance. In response to the question 'At this time, does the NCI know of any credible scientific evidence that exposure to trace levels (ppm) of synthetic chemicals in the general environment - even if these chemicals have been shown in high doses to cause cancer in laboratory animals - contribute to the toll of human cancer in the U.S.?' asked by the ACSH, Susan Sieber (a scientist and director of communications), of the National Cancer Institute, responded that the institute knows of "no evidence" that would support that claim. - http://www.acsh.org/news/newsID.258/news_detail.asp Officials at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Department of Fisheries & Oceans & Food and Drug Administration disputed the study's recommendations 'In Canada, the fish is safe,' said Glenn McGregor, seafood inspector for the CFIA. 'Health Canada has been trying to promote fish as a healthy alternative for protein, certainly not trying to restrict its intake.' - As quoted in The Globe and Mail, January 9, 2004 'One thing that's very clear is that these amounts are well within CFIA standards, which are internationally accepted standards,' said Mark Burgham, policy director of sustainable aquaculture for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. - As quoted in the Vancouver Province, January 9, 2004 "We certainly don't think there's a public health concern here,' said Dr. Terry Troxell, director of the agency's office of plant and dairy foods and beverages. 'Our advice to consumers is not to alter their consumption of farmed or wild salmon.' - As quoted in The New York Times, January 9, 2004 'We've looked at all the data and our advice to consumers is not to alter their consumption of farmed or wild salmon,' said Terry Troxell, director of the FDA Centre for Food Safety and Nutrition. 'Salmon is an excellent source of Omega 3 fatty acids, vitamins and proteins,' he said. 'These [contaminant] levels are extremely low and are not of public health concern to us.' - As quoted on ABC News, January 9, 2004 The Food and Drug Administration said the levels of pollutants found in salmon are too low for serious concern. The agency urged Americans not to let the new research, reported Thursday in the journal Science, frighten them into a diet change. - As quoted by The Associated Press, January 9, 2004 The 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.' - As quoted by The Associated Press, January 9, 2004 Eric Rimm of the Harvard School of Public Health in Cambridge, Mass., points out numbers alone may suggest farmed salmon's benefits still outweigh any risk. One in two Americans die every year from cardiovascular disease, while the risk of developing cancer from contaminants remains uncertain and undocumented. - As quoted by Los Angeles Times, January 9, 2004 PCB's have not been proved to cause cancer in people, and industry workers who were exposed to higher levels did not have a higher cancer rate, said Dr. Michael Gallo of the Cancer Institute at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. - As quoted in The New York Times, January 9, 2004 Echoing many of the criticisms held by other researchers in the fields of nutrition and toxicology, Mike Gallo of Rutgers University told Intrafish yesterday that while the study was comprehensive in its approach, its conclusions were faulty. 'PCBs are in all salmon. The difference between 5 ppb [parts per billion] and 30 ppb is meaningless. If you use the EPA's mathematical model...there is no difference,' Gallo said, referring to the differing PCB levels that the study's authors found in wild and farmed salmon. Gallo, who said he helped to craft the EPA's cancer risk assessment model used by the authors, remarked that it was inappropriate for the scientists to discount the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's guidance on contaminants in fish. The FDA has never issued a public health advisory on farmed salmon and yesterday reiterated its position that the product is safe to several news outlets. 'As a professor of public health, I would never tell anyone to limit their intake of salmon,' Gallo said. - As quoted on Intrafish, January 9, 2004 'No one is really sure how important these interactions are in the real world,' said Dr. Mark E. Hahn, a toxicologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who has spent 20 years working on PCB's and dioxins, with no industry support. But, Dr. Hahn said, if someone decides not to eat farmed salmon, then what? 'What risk are you substituting?' he asked. 'What else are you going to eat?' 'I love salmon, and I eat it a couple of times a month,' he said. He read the Science paper carefully, he said, and 'I'm not going to change my eating habits.' - As quoted in The New York Times, January 9, 2004 Phil Guzelian, M.D., Professor of Medicine, Head, Section of Medical Toxicology, University of Colorado Health Sciences Centre, says the report is largely a confirmation of previously accumulated knowledge regarding trace amounts of chlorinated chemicals detectable in fish, in this case, in salmon. The data show quite convincingly, as has been known for some time, that regardless of whether the salmon are farm bred or caught wild, the amounts of these chemicals are small indeed, being about 100 times lower than the safe amounts recommended by the US FDA's health-based risk assessments. In view of the lack of an evidence-based determination that these chlorinated chemicals at such low doses are toxic to humans at all, the Hites et al. 2003 report provides reassurance to the public to consider, without misgivings, the reported health benefits of including salmon in the diet. 'The nutritional benefits of salmon are pretty amazing,' said Charles Santerre, a professor of food and nutrition at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., 'I strongly believe that all the data we have today suggests that everyone should be eating more farmed salmon.' - As quoted on ABC News, January 9, 2004 Charles Santerre, a food toxicologist at Purdue University, called the study flawed because it failed to take into account the nutritional benefits of eating salmon. He said any slightly elevated risk of cancer pales in comparison with the advantages of consuming salmon rich with omega-3 fatty acids, which help prevent heart attacks. Even an increase in farmed salmon consumption, he said, is a worthwhile trade-off in the fight against heart disease, American's No. 1 killer. 'I would calculate 6,000 people getting cancer over their lifetime, that's an approximation, versus potentially saving the lives of 100,000 individuals every year.' Furthermore, Santerre said, the levels of contaminants detected in the study show salmon to be perfectly safe, as is recognized by the FDA. - As quoted in The Los Angeles Times, January 9, 2004 A University of Guelph expert dismisses as overblown an American study alleging eating Canadian-farmed Atlantic salmon is a health hazard from elevated toxins. "In actual fact, no, there really isn't significant cause for concern," aquaculture professor Richard Moccia, who oversees the university's aquaculture centre, said recently. Moccia cited several reasons why consumers can feel confident in eating farmed Atlantic salmon. He stressed the levels of contaminants "are well within acceptable guidelines" set out by Health Canada, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). Moccia added the risk from these compounds must be weighted against the healthy aspects of eating fish, such as the presence of beneficial dietary fatty acids. Further, Moccia said the chemical residues come from the fish food, rather than the water in which these farmed Atlantic salmon swim. That's significant, he said, because it means improvements to fish food can be made. - As quoted in the Guelph Mercury, January 12, 2004

I want to learn more about... Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) PCB findings in Wild and Farm-Raised Salmon Flawed Science and Misinformation Organic-Farmed Salmon Conclusions Salmon Tales Home These are some available online resources: Salmon Nutritional Information http://www.farmfreshsalmon.org Title: Farmed salmon, PCBs, Activists, and the Media Title: Who Says PCBs Cause Cancer? The complete, unabridged, definitive source for all PCB information.

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