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Chemicals in Fish
- Nov 5, 2009 at 6:00 AM
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- Comments (7) Total Views (327) Everyone can see this journal post.
I am usually not disturbed by anything. Very little surprises me. This week I cam across a booklet at work at our "green awareness" event; it outlines the chemical contamination in our local fish. Pretty scary stuff put out by the New York State Department of Health. The whole pdf is available free online. Many people knock our government agencies (mostly federal), but sometimes those are the only groups with ANY data or recommendation to follow at all. In this case, you couldn't get any more strict than what you'll see in this post.
On page 2, the NY State Department of Health states:
"DOH offers health advice for infants, chiildren under the age of 15 and women of childbearing age. DOH recommends that these groups not eat any fish from specified waterbodies listed in the advisory (see pages 8-19). The reason for this specific advice is that chemicals may have a greater affect on developing organs in young children or in the unborn child. They also build up in women's bodies and are passed on in mother's milk."
It continues on to talk about the studies done on mercury and how that evidence warrents an advisory to consume NO fish from the list (but what do they know about the other kinds of fish??). I wrote a long post about the dynamics of mercury in the body if you would like to know more.
The advisory also gives information on how to cook and clean the fish (although this will not remove all the contaminating chemicals. There is also advice about which game can be eaten and diseases that commonly affect fish and game.
The bulk of the document is the chart referred to above - pages 8-19. Every body of water with a specific advisory is listed in this giant chart. Also given is the specific chemical contaminating the water and fish, and the recommendation on how many to eat maximum. The scary part, if youthumb through it: Almost all of them say "Eat no more than one meal per month", which is the advisory for men, but women & children should eat nothing. These bodies of water represent a large portion of New York State. This is the most disgusting, disturbing thing I have read in a LONG time.
So I went looking for something similar for other states. In Maryland, we would be able to eat some of the fish, but there are still many advisories against certain consumptions. West Virginia information seems about the same. What does the advisory look like in your state? Google "fish advisory
Tonya
Comments:
This is important info to have. it is so sad that it has come to this. Fish has always been a great source of nutrition.
yes i know i live by lake erie and you couldnt pay me to eat a fish from it... it caught on fire it is so dirty (that was in the 70's or 80's) it is like the simpsons, fish with 3 eyes and whatnot.
Holy crap! I just looked up my state and all the lakes and major rivers where they have a fish advisory...almost all of them have high to very high levels of mercury. I never knew that...yikes, good to know.
I have seen this before. It is crazy. I understand why doctors say limit fish, but then they recommend the flu shot and other vaccines that have much more mercury / therimosal in them... Seems so contradictory, if mercury is bad, it is bad in all manners.... I know some places have less mercury, but it seems that pretty much where ever you live, you have to be careful with the fish and your family.... :-/ Such a shame, fish is SO good for you in general....
You can click on your state at this site also...
Good info to have. Just looked up Texas. Ugh! Thanks for the info.
angelmama - nice link, I am going to add it to the OP - thank you!!!
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This is very sad. I just looked up Florida, and it looks like my favorite fish (fresh tuna) is on the "no, no" list. Great...I will probably be passing lovely chemicals to my offspring. Ugh!!
- logansmomma2007
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