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Subscribe to RSSA coalition of environmental and social nonprofits and churches on Tuesday called on the federal government to beef up seafood testing following the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
A letter drafted by the Natural Resources Defense Council on behalf of the groups calls for a review of current procedures, which have led to reopening commercial fishing in large sections of the Gulf of Mexico.
“We’re raising a few concerns about the scope of the seafood safety assessments that are going on,” said Gina Solomon, senior scientific advisor to the NRDC. “We’re not saying they are totally inadequate, or questioning a specific reopening, but there were things that gave us pause. “
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Food and Drug Administration already are moving to increase testing. NOAA and the FDA are developing a test to detect dispersants in seafood as part of an effort to assuage ongoing health concerns about the chemicals used to break up the oil as it gushed into the ocean.
The federal agencies have also been bringing in more non-government researchers to analyze the data to address concerns that the testing has not been transparent enough.
“We're taking extraordinary steps to assure a high level of confidence in the seafood," NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco, told reporters on Monday.
But the letter to the agency said portions of the safety testing are based on assumptions of average body weights that may fail to protect people who fall outside the parameters.
“They assumed that the average weight of a seafood consumer is 175 pounds,” said Solomon, a physician and scientist who studies toxic contamination for the NRDC. “That’s OK if you’re a guy, but not for most women or a kid. Those are populations we are the most concerned about.”
The letter raises concerns about the use of national consumption averages to calculate risk to seafood consumers, which would likely understate the risk to coastal communities that rely solely or largely on seafood for protein.
The letter also points out that the agencies are not testing seafood for heavy metals. At present the testing focuses on a different set of contaminants found in oil--polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
“Cadmium, copper, lead and mercury have all been detected in studies of crude oil,” and should be included in Gulf seafood monitoring “given the public health threat of exposures to low levels of these metals and their potential to bio-accumulate in seafood,” it said.
The full text of the letter to NOAA, can be viewed by clicking here. We will report on NOAA’s response to the letter when it is issued.
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Never been a Heavy Metal fan as a music genre or in my seafood.
Have you try listening to "pour some sugar on me" by Def Leppard? It is nice.
Have you try unmarinated grill shrimp on metal skewers? It is nice and chewy. Wood skewers are better but it isnt heavy metal, in either case dont forget the sauce....
“We’re raising a few concerns about the scope of the seafood safety assessments that are going on,” said Gina Solomon, senior scientific advisor to the NDRC. “We’re not saying they are totally inadequate, or questioning a specific reopening, but there were things that gave us pause. “
Yeah, that and how do we keep our name out there and try to continue to keep the oil spill on the front page? These groups/people are a joke.
Lets see here...
Samples were tested by the Gvmnt-- Found to be ok.
Samples were tested by Texas Tech-- Found to be ok
EVERY load of shrimp is being tested by the processing plants if ANY of the shrimp are found to be unsafe, the entire batch is thrown out. The Shrimpers are having to sign documents saying they agree to not be paid untill everything is found to be ok.
WHAT else do these people want to be done?
The government has NEVER assured seafood safety, what a joke. They are only testing for what their
ISN'T! The PAHs are the first contaminants to leave the water column and the least toxic. There are
PAHs found in every bottle of bottled water you drink, every can of concentrated juice or can of soup,
the FDA is a joke, Google 'food poisoning in the US', or read about US drinking water contamination.
I don't understand why environmental and non-profit people are at the forefront questioning quality. Most all seafood distributors in FL have held back offering specific seafood to maintain their reputation. More hype to wreck a responsible industry. Concerned??, don't eat it and our prices will come down.....................
the question is parts of contamination per size of person eating the product. WHY question that? because even I dont weight 175 lbs, nor does 3/4 of Americans when you count women children and so on. so those "parts per pound" that are deemed safe for the "average person of 175 lbs" does not include the risk factor of those who weight laess. personally, i wont be eating shrimp till maybe the next couple yrs or so till i know its safe to eat. Kinda falls into the mercury, and pcb testing. i dont eat a lot of fish anyway, so i wont miss anything....lol
read 1.3
How many more people need to tell you its safe before you believe it?
Funny you should say that Jeremy.
Go google 'the dangers of GMO foods'.
Our FDA says eat up, the rest of the world that are doing studies on them say "NO WAY". The only difference is that Monsanto doesn't own the other countries "FDA" like they do ours.
Trusting your government is your first mistake....
Where am I saying trust the Gvmnt..
I am saying the fish is being tested by multiple sources, from the Federal Gvmnt, private business, and well respected Schools.
All of them are saying it is safe. IF it was just the Gvmnt doing the testing then by all means question. The problem is it is not just the Gvmnt.
Speaking of average weights, they are using 175#. Well when you average the a 350# woman and a 75# 7 year old kid... I would say that they are being rather modest using 175#.
What, you don't believe that? Look around the next time you're in the supermarket.
Follow the Money ! It's ALL about Money.
Has there ever been a people so wanting to scare themselves, if there isn't a reason to fear, we'll make one up, after forming a committee of course. I wonder what level this country could attain if we didn't spend most of our efforts in scaring each other? Let's face it, we're a "glass is empty not half full" type of people.
Although I certainly agree in principle about our media and others using scare tactics in our society, The approach that you seem to have is that: We as a people should just accept good news without question is in itself conversly ludicrous.
The point here is that certain testing should be completed in addition to the current testing. That is only rational.
Not knowing is not the same as safe.
Feed it to Oblahblah and see what happens....
Never fails, someone from the republican party will find a way to criticize our current president in any venue. Get over it.
I'm not from the Republican party. I'm critisizing him, what's your point? He's going to go swimming in the gulf why shouldn't he eat a pound of shrimp? Shrimp is halal so he should be ok with it.
Yes , He went swimming in the Gulf . A haz-mat team probably scrubbed him and his family down , from head to toe .
The water and the fish are NOT Safe . Even the air is going to be deemed unsafe .
At least there are groups out there that are looking after the public's health concerns over profits and gulf jobs. There are many instances where government officials swayed by bribes and lobbyists. I wouldn't be surprised if years or decades down the road, I see higher instances of birth defects and cancer around the gulf that been affected. Just because you dont see it doesn't mean it's not there.
Exactly. It's amazing how many people do not grasp the ramifications of the Gulf spill. The effects will last for years! Some effects won't even be known for years. Remember how long it took to identify Agent Orange as being responsible for illnesses in Vietnam vets? The government has admitted it does not know what the effects of massive use of dispersants will be. This is one of the real tragedies of this event. Even though the oil is no longer gushing, the Gulf seafood industry will be affected for years to come.
The dispersants that are being used in the Gulf are the same ones that Europe and the British folk have banned in their country, I wonder why? Yum yum, can't wait to eat some of those gulf shrimp. I think we should send all our Gulf shrimp over to them and let them be the lab study!
I think BP officials and gov't employees should be the lab rats. Noone overseas made BP use dispersants.
If you've had enough, grow it yourself, milk it yourself and butcher it yourself or stop bitchin'.
The answer is simple. Ban all Gulf seafood for the next decade or so, since it is obvious testing cannot be performed to a sufficient level to provide a 100% guarantee that seafood from the Gulf is safe and there is no risk from eating it.
But wait, there are no 100% guarantees in life. Look, I'll listen to the extent of testing being done; evaluate the reasonableness of it and make my own decision. If I decide to eat it and I grow a third eye at age 70 or die a few years sooner, it's my fault for the decision I made; no one held a gun to my head and forced me to eat the stuff. If any one knows of anybody who's gotten out of this life alive, let me know and then, and only then, will I consider living my life attempting avoid all known (and unknown) risks. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the time I've had and whatever time I have left on this planet however long or short that may be.
P.S. How come no one seems concerned about the the mega amounts of pollutants the rest of the country is dumping into the Mississippi River that end of being deposited in the same Gulf of Mexico and impacting the same seafood we're having this discussion about? That's been going on for as long as people have been living upriver form the Gulf. After all, the Mississippi River is not known as the "Nation's Sewer Pipe" without good reason.
had-enough,
"At least there are groups out there that are looking after the public's health concerns over profits and gulf jobs."
And there are also groups out there that are nothing but self-promoting enviromental wack jobs who are devastated that more damage wasn't done to the environment by the spill.
Simple answer to this question..
The people complaining know only what they are told by the media. The media tells them something is bad, or something is good then they come to the blog and moan and complain about the so called bad and praise the so called good.
Every year there is a HUGE dead zone in the gulf at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Yet because it gets no media attention, they do not know about it. Out of Sight out of Mind.
“We're taking extraordinary steps to assure a high level of confidence in the seafood," NOAA chief Jane Lubchenc
>>> Why is restoring confidence in the seafood industry a priority for the NOAA? This organization should focus solely on tracing the oil in the the oceanic and atmosphere be it dispersed, consolidated, emulsified, vaporized (??), or otherwise. Let the fishing industry worry about inspiring confidence; the oceans are terribly over-fished anyhow. I'd like to see my tax dollars put to work for real science, not this ridiculous and obvious propaganda.
If you go to www.noaa.gov you will see that one of the NOAA's responsibilities is Fisheries. So they not only have the right but the responsibility to see that 'sea food' (part of their Fisheries responsibilty) is commercially safe.
Prime example of not having one's priorities in line. I for one would like to see my tax dollars used in alot of ways different from what it is now.
I would dearly love to know the secret of YOUR oil-free lifestyle!
I want see all off-shore oil supporting buffoons sit down and eat three plates of Gulf Shrimp.
I think the American people are much more in the mood to see a million Gulf Shrimp eat three off-shore oil supporting buffoons.
Start with Barry - he's all for it as long as it's Soros drilling off of the coast of Brazil - hell, Barry gave US tax dollars to Brazil to benefit Soros' offshore project - let him eat all the shrimp his shrimpy ass can handle.
Nomam,
Bring it on!! You got a link where I can order some? This is turning into the scientifically bankrupt Alar scare. No real science, just a bunch of shouda, woulda, coulda chicken littles generating some fund raising.
Why would we ever trust the government to judge the seafood, they don't even do proper inspections of the food already in the markets !!! And WHAT single program has the government ever gotten into that didn't go downhill ??? My total trust is in the people down there on the gulf and their reports , lets send a truckload to the whitehouse and let them ginny pig for us !!!
I would like to know where these agencies are getting the information as to WHAT CHEMICALS AND COMPOUNDS THEY ARE TESTING FOR? The INGREDIENTS in this dispersant is PROPITIATORY, that means the manufacturer (Nalco, a B P company) does not have to disclose the PROPRIETARY INGREDIENTS to anyone, the government included. So if the TESTING AGENCIES do not have a clear idea about WHAT TO TEST FOR then it leaves the testing agencies at a loss. The only thing they can do is TEST FOR EVERYTHING. B P's explanation is that their chemical does not contain anything hazardous but will not allow conformation. Doesn't that smell like crap to you? The oil left in the water column is hidden by this chemical (Corexit) whose main ability is the way it changes the specific gravity of oil, especially when released at such depths and temperature. There is enough oil left in the gulf right now that if processed it could run this country for a while. I hate to infer collusion in these reports from our "supposed" honest agencies and B P, but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck IT MUST BE A DUCK. Tell us the truth, pay your fines and retributions and do your job honestly B P and all will continue, you make money, we have jobs, and the world turns.
Maybe the proprietary ingredients includea form of fertilizers. Nitrogen and phosphorous, of which promote oil bacterial eating organisms. Fertilizers are a major concern that may cause cancer and other cellular discrepancies in animal, plant and human life forms. The key factors in testing is to not assume a limited spectrum; Thus, in a free nation private testing labs is not illegal.
Even if they declare the seafood "spotless and perfect", I still won't eat it! Better to turn vegan, and eat eggplant parmesan rather than eat that seafood and develop some exotic form of stomach cancer. I bet that these scientists are being pressured by the govt, to declare it safe for consumption so that the seafood industry can rebound. If it does, at what human cost are we talking about in cancer cases, and birth defects?? Won't that also impact our country when the unpaid bills start hitting the taxpayers in the pocket? Most unemployed/underemployed folks don't have money for their basic necessities, much less insurance. Sheesh.
The shrimpers and oystermen in our area, and there are many in the Galveston Bay area, are worried that they may have just one shrimp that might look a little oily. They don't want any contamination of their product that their livelihood depends on. Try to look at the problem with their point of view. One bad shrimp, whether contaminated by the leak from the BP well or not, will hurt them horribly. If NOAA or any other government entity can help by testing and giving the public assurance that Gulf seafood is safe to eat, more power to them if they are correct in their assessment. I just hope and pray that they are correct.
Peaches: you forgot something...human life has no value where money is concerned...remember?...
Man, ya got that right! Every form of life on earth, including humans, and even the earth itself is totally expendable when it comes to the pursuit of the almighty dollar.
That is a profound true statement! Thanks for reminding me. Thank God I am allergic to seafood and it is neither bought or cooked in my household. No one I know is eating the seafood from that region. We don't want to wake up the dreaded third eye!
BP sucks
glenbo:.that's right..I'll bet the fishermen are a lot more concerned with contamination than the feds are.
The government doing a half-a$$ed job? What a shock!
it can't be tainted jesus just emursed himself in the waters this last wknd.
Simple ! Any fish you wish to eat . Just hang up on a clothes line , by the tail for no less than 1/2 hour .
When you no longer see any oil draining out . Cook well done , and try and enjoy .
Where is your will ?
No, no , don't worry , it's safe , it's safe . I'm just playing with you .
We know it's safe . B P and N O A A's top scientist told us it was safe . The FDA has done a smell test on the fish , and said they were safe .
B P had 25 top scientist search over the entire gulf and give a big thumbs up . You know B P wouldn't lie to us .
There was oil flowing into the gulf naturally long before people overpopulated and polluted the land. Evolution has created bacteria that will break down the oil in the water. Eventually the earth will rid itself of the scourge on the land, and the fish and shrimp will live in peace.
They are doing just a smell test for all sea food from the gulf. If it smells like fish it's ok, if it smells like windex it fails. No one is checking to see what is inside the sea food and are not concerned about what you cannot see or smell, or if it will kill you! I think BP should pay all fishermen across the board and ban fishing to allow the gulf to recover. Killing what did survive seems to be a sure fire way to insure that the entire gulf region will never recover. Bp should pay for several years to allow the gulf time to replenish itself and with out forcing people to take out loans that have to be paid back. It is BP careless safety practices that caused this tragic event and they alone should have to pay, not the good people who reside there. Until full testing we will not know the full extent of the damage, allowing people to eat seafood from the gulf is a crime and allows BP off the hook! It is big money who has been in charge the entire time and public safety has been forgotten. The FDA still approves the marketing of tobacco, which has been linked to thousands of deaths in America each year. Now they want to poison us with cancer causing chemicals by lacing seafood and selling it to us. With no future way to force BP to pay our medical bills. When we develop cancer or die. People need to understand it's not just oil and dispersants on the outside of the seafood, but also what is inside that we cannot see, that will make you sick or kill you! Instead of buying Tv ads boasting about what a great job they are doing, why isn't that money being given to the people who lively hood has been ruined. Only 20 % of all claims have been paid by BP in the form of loans that must be paid back by the people most greatly affected by this disaster. Bp gave sex parties and super bowl tickets to the very people who regulated and insured safety for the area. Why would you believe anything from these very same people about how safe it is now? a bigger issue is where did all that oil go? It has to be somewhere, it's the not out of sight out of mind policy, that will keep people safe. Only full blown testing can lay everything to rest, but why not allow the area a season off from fishing. If nothing else allow mother nature a chance to catch her breath, before killing what is left and what didn't die! Or before Americans become sick from hidden chemicals, that we were never warned about.
Big Jim, there is only one thing that you said which is accurate and true: "It is BP careless safety practices that caused this tragic event and they alone should have to pay, not the good people who reside there". Among the most egregious of your misstatements is that there has been some sort of huge die-off of fish or shrimp or other seafood....that did not happen. Another totally incorrect statement is that "they are doing just a smell test for all seafood from the Gulf". I certainly don't believe everything the government says all the time, but at least I listen to what they actually say and I don't just make things up out of thin air.
This group is problably head up by BP
Is this a supprise?........ www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38744335/ ..... right now asking the government or BP scientists anything about the gulf is asking to have smoke blown up your @$$.... their job is to make people feel safe about poison .... remember DDT?
Sorry folks, if you trust this government, you deserve to eat pre-oiled seafood. For me, it's beef, pork, chicken, and atlantic seafood. The Gulf will be a disaster for years. Thanks Tony!
No oil required? How about no dispersants,..geesh I wouldn't put seefood on my plate for a decade! Yeah trust the government to make sure your food is safe,..they really care about you!
Just had a thought about the masses of fish dead fish lining up to shores of NJ and Ma, Fla and a few other places,..I guess it is unrelated,..yeah I buy that