Recent Advisory News

• Japan finds high levels of toxins in whale blubber - Japanese officials announced in August that processors of whale meat are being asked to boil the fatty parts of the meat in order to reduce PCB contamination before marketing them. This announcement was made after the government found that four out of five randomly taken blubber samples from minke whales contained up to 0.72 parts per million of PCBs. The Japanese government has set a health limit of 0.5 ppm for PCBs. These concerns over the safety of whale meat come days after 2,000 metric tons of fresh whale meat went on sale from whales killed in waters near Antarctica during Japan's research expeditions between November 2001 and May 2002. In Japan, whale blubber is most commonly consumed as bacon, boiled or preserved in salt.

  Source: Japan finds high levels of toxins in whale blubber. AP Worldstream, August 8, 2002

Current Events, News and Journal Articles

• Mercury residues in tuna from the Mediterranean Sea - Researchers report on a study to determine the current levels of total mercury and methylmercury in the muscle tissue of albacore (Thunnus alalunga) and bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) caught in the Mediterranean sea. Total mercury concentrations averaged 1.17 ppm (wet weight, range 0.84 to 1.45 ppm) in albacore, and averaged 1.18 ppm (range 0.16 to 2.59 ppm) in bluefin tuna. In 78.6% of albacore and in 61.1% of bluefin tuna analyzed, total mercury concentrations exceeded the maximum level fixed by the European Commission Decision (Hg = 1 µg/g wet wt). In the two species, mercury was present almost completely in the methylated form, averaging 91% in each species.

  Source: M. M. Storelli; R. Giacominelli Stuffler; G. O. Marcotrigiano. 2002. Total and methylmercury residues in tuna-fish from the Mediterranean sea. Food Additives and Contaminants, Vol. 19:8, pp. 715-720

• Chlorinated hydrocarbons in sediment, polychaetes, and fish - DDTs and PCBs are a major source of concern in the Southern California Bight area. The authors of this study found that DDTs and PCBs remained widely distributed in the overlying water, sediment, polychaetes, and liver and muscle tissues of the hornyhead turbot (Pleuronichthys Verticalis) collected from three nearshore locations with different levels of contamination. Results of the statistical analyses conducted for this study suggest that contaminated sediments may have become an important source of contamination.

  Source: Zeng EY and K. Tran. 2002. Distribution of chlorinated hydrocarbons in overlying water, sediment, polychaete, and hornyhead turbot (Pleuronichthys verticalis) in the coastal ocean, Southern California, USA. Environ Toxicol Chem Aug;21(8):1600-8.

• Predicting the occurrence of genetic adaptation to dioxinlike compounds - This study investigated the inherited tolerance of dioxinlike compounds in a population of mummichogs indigenous to New Bedford Harbor, MA (a PCB-contaminated Superfund site). The fish demonstrated an inherited tolerance to local dioxinlike compounds suggesting that the contaminants have acted as selective agents, allowing the survival of only the most tolerant individuals. To measure contaminant tolerance of the fish, progeny of field-collected fish were tested in the laboratory with a dioxinlike PCB congener (PCB 126). Tolerant populations were indigenous to sites with elevated sediment PCB concentrations. Tolerant populations were also resident to sites far less contaminated than the Superfund site, suggesting that exposure may produce evolutionary effects on a geographic scale larger than previously envisioned.

  Source: Nacci DE, Champlin D, Coiro L, McKinney R, Jayaraman S. 2002. Predicting the occurrence of genetic adaptation to dioxinlike compounds in populations of the estuarine fish Fundulus heteroclitus. Environ Toxicol Chem;21(7):1525-32.

• Dietary fish oil protects against lung and liver inflammation in rats - This study was undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of fish oil in preventing tissue pathologies associated with monocrotaline (MCT) toxicity in rats. Twenty-four weanling rats were randomly assigned to one of two groups, either a control group fed a diet containing 15% corn oil or an experimental group fed a diet containing fish oil (13%) and corn oil (2%). Six rats in each group were injected with the MCT toxin and six injected with its vehicle (water). In rats receiving MCT, researchers observed severe interstitial pneumonia, septal fibrosis, vasculitis with virtual obliteration of the lumen of the small arteries and arterioles, right ventricular hypertrophy (RVH), and hepatomegaly and hepatocyte vacuole formation. Rats fed with fish oil had significantly reduced septal fibrosis and development of pneumonia. In addition, fish oil effectively protected the MCT-treated rats from development of hepatocyte vacuoles (steatosis), hepatic inflammation and vasculitis, increased presence of fibroblasts and collagen deposition in the centrilobular spaces. Based on these results, the authors suggest that fish oil protects against inflammation and fibrosis in the lung and liver, and against hepatocyte vacuole formation in MCT-treated rats.

  Source: Baybutt RC, Rosales C, Brady H, Molteni A. 2002. Dietary fish oil protects against lung and liver inflammation and fibrosis in monocrotaline treated rats. Toxicology 2002 Jun 14;175(1-3):1-13.

• Analysis of contaminants in Salton Sea fish - The authors studied chemical contaminant levels in fish from California’s Salton Sea, a source of food for millions of birds using the Pacific Flyway. Bairdiella, orangemouth corvina, and tilapia were sampled from two river mouths and two nearshore areas of the Salton Sea. Fish muscle tissues were analyzed for 14 trace metals and 53 pesticides. Fish muscle tissues had concentrations of selenium ranging between 1.89 and 2.73 microg/g wet weight. Total DDTs ranged between 17.1 and 239.0 and total PCBs between 2.5 and 18.6 ng/g wet weight. PCB congeners 132, 138, 153, 168, and 180 comprised over 50% of the total PCBs. Given these levels, further research is suggested because the Salton Sea may in the future be used for commercial fishing.

  Source: Riedel R, Schlenk D, Frank D, Costa-Pierce B. 2002. Analyses of organic and inorganic contaminants in Salton Sea fish. Mar Pollut Bull 2002 May;44(5):403-11.

• New total mercury determination method discussed - This paper discusses a potential new methodology for total mercury determination in seafood and other food items. Researchers used a mixture of 50% H2O2-H2SO4 for decomposition of food, allowing rapid total mercury determination by flow injection cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometry. Oysters, shrimp, prawns, shellfish, marine algae, and many kinds of fish were analyzed by this method with a limit of quantitation of 0.86 +/- 0.08 microg/L mercury in the final solution. Reference materials tested also gave excellent recovery.

  Source: Zenebon O, Sakuma AM, Dovidauskas S, Okada IA, de, MaioFrancaD, Lichtig J. 2002. Rapid food decomposition by H2O2-H2SO4 for determination of total mercury by flow injection cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometry. J AOAC Int 2002 Jan-Feb;85(1):149-52.

• Monitoring of chlorinated hydrocarbons in fish in Croatia - The authors report on a monitoring study of chlorinated hydrocarbons in meat and fish in Croatia. Four hundred and sixty-six fatty tissue samples of beef, pork, poultry and fish were assayed between 1992 and 1996 for chlorinated hydrocarbons including HCB, alpha-HCH, lindane, DDT and metabolites, and total PCBs. Samples were divided into 2 groups: meat and fish imported to Croatia; and meat from Croatian farms and fish from the Adriatic Sea. In domestic meat, the levels of pollution with the compounds studied were considerably lower than in imported meats. The differences were most noticeable in lindane and DDT levels in beef, and those of DDT in pork. However, PCB levels in domestic fish were considerably higher (average 0.046 mg/kg) than in imported fish (0.006 mg/kg). Compared to meat and fish of the same origin that were analyzed by the same laboratory 10 years ago, the pollution of domestic meat and fish with chlorinated hydrocarbons showed a trend of noticeable decline.

  Source: Kipcic D; Vukusic J; Sebecic B. 2002. Monitoring of chlorinated hydrocarbon pollution of meat and fish in Croatia. Food Technology and Biotechnology; 40 (1) 39-47, 32 ref.

• Development of a fish contaminant monitoring protocol for Lake Mead, Nevada - Researchers administered detailed questionnaires to 150 sportsmen at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area in order to gain information about fish consumption patterns. They found that striped bass, largemouth bass and channel catfish were the most frequently consumed fish species, with an average of 22+3.6 fish meals a year consumed by respondents. Striped bass and largemouth bass between 13-18 inches were most commonly consumed, while channel catfish were typically between 10-15 inches in length. Based on these data and on the favored locations of the fishers, a three fish, four location contaminant monitoring protocol was developed to best represent human exposure to contaminated fish at Lake Mead.

  Source: Gerstenberger S L, Eccleston B. 2002. Development of a fish contaminant monitoring protocol for Lake Mead, Nevada. Lake and Reservoir Management 18(2) 118-128

• Mercury accumulation in catfish from the Tennessee River valley. - Liver and muscle tissue of catfish collected from Pickwick Lake (Tennessee) were analyzed to determine if Hg continues to be a contaminant in this system after it was introduced in the 1960s from an industrial source. Low concentrations of mercury were detected in all of these samples. Tissue levels of Hg were found to be higher in fish from an upstream lake and from nearby farm ponds than those from Pickwick Lake. Although Hg is still accumulating in fish in Pickwick Lake, the source does not appear to be from the historic industrial releases. A possible source for the Hg at all the sites is atmospheric deposition from local coal-burning electrical generation plants. Mercury residues in muscle tissue did not exceed the USFDA limit for any of the catfish collected in this area.

  Source: Nichols AC, Murray TP, Richardson TD. 2002. Mercury accumulation in catfish (Ictalurus furcatus and I. punctatus) from the southwestern Tennessee River valley. Southeastern Naturalist 1(2): 159-168

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.

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Revised September, 2002