Recent Advisory News

• Virginia Issues 2 New Advisories for PCBs - Advisories issued for the New River and Bluestone River, advising all people to avoid consumption of carp from these waterbodies. Read the advisories at Virginia's Fish Advisory Web Site (scroll to the bottom of the page).

• Alaska Issues Advice Regarding Fish Consumption and National Mercury Advisories - In June the Alaska Division of Public Health issued a statement recommending that all Alaskans continue unrestricted consumption of fish from Alaskan waters. This statement is in response to the EPA and FDA national advisories, issued in January, recommending women who are or may become pregnant, nursing mothers, and children restrict consumption of some commercial and recreationally caught fish from all waters of the U.S. Alaska chose to issue this statement based on a number of factors. "The FDA has acknowledged that mercury levels in Alaska fish are far below the average levels upon which the FDA issued their advisory," the statement explains. In addition, the Alaska Division of Public Health conducted a review of available data on mercury levels in Alaskan fish and humans and found that levels "are very low in the most frequently consumed fish from Alaska, such as salmon, cod, halibut, pollock, sole, and herring." Based on these factors and weighing the known benefits of fish consumption, including health, social, and cultural benefits, the state issued Recommendations for Fish Consumption in Alaska .

Source: Alaska Epidemiology Bulletin No. 6, June 15, 2001. Recommendations for Fish Consumption in Alaska

Also read Alaska'a review of available data entitled Alaska Fish Contaminants

Interagency Collaborative Paper on Contaminants in Alaska

Current Events, News and Journal Articles

• Study on PCBs and Neurobehavioral Deficits in a Group of Faroese Children - A new study finds correlation between cord tissue concentration of PCBs and neurobehavioral deficits (determined by performance on the Boston Naming Test and other tests) in 7-year-old children in the Faroe Islands. A birth cohort of 435 children was studied. The study also reports possible confounding of PCB cord tissue levels with cord blood mercury levels (r = .42). Read the abstract for more information on this study.

  Source: Grandjean, P., P. Weihe, V. W. Burse, L.L, Needham, E. Storr-Hansen, B. Heinzow, F. Debes, K. Murata, H. Simonsen, P. Ellefsen, E. Budtz-Jorgensen, N. Keiding, R. F. White. 2001. Neurobehavioral deficits associated with PCB in 7-year-old children prenatally exposed to seafood neurotoxicants. Neurotoxicology and Teratology Vol. 23, No. 4, 01-Jul-2001

• Journal of Pediatrics Reports on Mercury in the Environment - The July issue of Pediatrics carries a 9 page review of current information on mercury, including implications for pediatricians concerning the treatement and prevention of mercury exposure. The report concludes that the most important source of methylmercury exposure to children is fish consumption by the mother before or during pregnancy and by young children.

  Source: Goldman, L.R. and M.W. Shannon. Technical Report: Mercury in the Environment: Implications for Pediatricians. Pediatrics July 2001 Vol 108 (1), p. 197.

• Study Finds Low Levels of Pollutants in Farmed Fish - Heavy metals, pesticides, and PCB levels were found to be much lower than FDA safety limits in farmed fish (channel catfish, rainbow trout, and red swamp crayfish), reports a study funded by USDA and published in the March 2001 issue of the Journal of Food Science . Farm-raised fish are usually lower in contaminants because they consume commercial fish food (which must be "guaranteed safe" by the manufacturer), and they are usually raised in ponds filled from ground water and are not exposed to polluted river bottoms and lake beds.

  Source: McInnis, D. and S. Gunjan. Farmed Fish are Safer. Popular Science vol 258(8), p. 34. August 2001.

• Omega-3's in Cheese - Canadian farmers have created cheese rich in Omega-3 fatty acids by feeding cows a fishmeal formula, reports Prevention magazine. A 1-ounce serving of the cheese supplies 22% of the recommended daily amount of Omega-3's. "OmegaSmart" cheese may appear in gourmet food stores sometime this year.

  Source: McCord, Holly. Healthy "Fish Fats" from Cows? Prevention vol 53(7), p. 61, July 2001.

• Fish Consumption May Reduce Risk of Prostate Cancer - A study of 6,272 Swedish men found that the men who ate no fish had a two to three times greater frequency of prostate cancer than the men who ate moderate or high amounts of fish. These results were obtained during 30 years of follow-up with the study subjects, all of whom were twin pairs born between 1886 and 1925. The more fish in a subject's diet, the less likely he was to have prostate cancer, even after adjustments for age and other risk factors. The authors of the study suggest that fatty fish consumption may lower the risk of prostate cancer due to the presence of omega-3 fatty acids, which are present in high levels in fish species from Northern waters (such as salmon, herring, and mackerel).

  Source: Paul, T., P. Lichtenstein, M. Feychting, A. Ahlbom, A. Wolk. 2001. Fatty fish consumption and risk of prostate cancer. Lancet 357 (9270), pp. 1764-7.

Meetings and Conferences

For More Information

For more information on EPA's Fish and Wildlife Contamination Program, contact: Jeffrey Bigler at US EPA, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW (4305), Washington, DC 20460; email: bigler.jeff@epa.gov.

email the newsletter

---

NLFWA HOME | OST HOME | EPA HOME | WATER HOME

Revised August, 2001