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Update About Mercury, PCBs and Alaska Seafood
- Contaminant levels that constitute a public health concern, as determined
by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have never been approached.
Alaska Seafood is routinely more pure than products from other parts
of the world.
- DDT (a pesticide) and PCBs (a class of industrial chemicals) have
been found in many marine organisms at levels of concern, but not
in Alaska Seafood.
- Biannual tests during the last 15 years rank Alaska sites among
the 25th with the least petroleum contamination in the U.S. Alaska
sites are not considered to have high concentrations of petroleum
hydrocarbons, PCBs or pesticides.
- The State of Alaska Division of Public Health's independent study
of traditional (Native) foods, conducted for the entire state, recommend
"the continued unrestricted consumption of traditional subsistence
foods in Alaska."
For those interested in additional information, the State of Alaska
Department of Environmental Conservation is completing work on a comprehensive
study of Alaska Seafood involving 700 samples, and has tested them for
the presence of various contaminants. The results are expected to be
released this fall. Preliminary results for tests for methlymercury
in Alaska Seafood are very encouraging, and support assertions of the
healthfulness of Alaska Salmon and other Alaska Seafood species.
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