Researchers with an environmental group have found that farm-raised salmon are contaminated with higher levels of PCBs than wild salmon. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
Researchers with an environmental group have found that farm-raised salmon are contaminated with higher levels of PCBs than wild salmon. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
The Environmental Working Group
tested salmon from grocery stores for
PCBs. It found that average levels of
PCBs in farm-raised salmon were
five times higher than in wild salmon.
Ken Cook is the President of the
Environmental Working Group. He
says PCB contamination is serious.
“It’s got a cancer risk associated with
it. It can also cause developmental
problems in children,
so we’re concerned that we have
the farm salmon cleaned up,
get rid of some of these PCBs. And
it won’t be too hard to do.”
Cook says the higher PCB levels
come from the feed for the salmon.
It’s ground up and concentrated fish.
Concentrating the fish concentrates
PCBs, giving farm-raised salmon
higher exposures. The farm salmon
industry indicates that levels are well
within the standards set by the Food
and Drug Administration, but the
PCB levels in the farm-raised salmon
do surpass the stricter guidelines set
by the Environmental Protection
Agency.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is
Lester Graham.