Salmon Scare Smells Fishy
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
This piece appeared in the August 29, 2003 New York Post. For more on
PCBs, see ACSH's brochure What's the Story? - PCBs.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
By Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan
August 29, 2003
Chefs at some of New York's finest restaurants-including Blue Water
Grill, Atlantic Grill and Blue Fin-are practicing the latest form of
culinary political correctness: banning farmed salmons from their menus,
to supposedly protect their patrons' health.
The cause? A flurry of media reports that an environmental advocacy
organization, the Environmental Working Group (EWG), found unusually
high levels of PCBs -the long-banned industrial chemicals that news
reports claimed "caused cancer"- in farmed salmon.
The Washington Post, for example, opined in a news piece that "farmed
salmon consumption may be posing a health threat to millions of
Americans." The New York Times informed readers that PCBs were "probable
human carcinogens."
No wonder the chefs got reeled into a state of farmed-salmon phobia. But
they-and millions of other Americans terrified by the alarming news
reports-were never given two critical facts that would have allowed them
to digest the fish scare with a few grains of salt:
* First, there is absolutely no credible evidence that environmental
exposure to PCBs (including ingesting the trace levels in the fish)
poses any risk of human cancer.
Even workers exposed in occupational settings to high levels of PCBs for
decades manifest no elevated rates of cancer that could be related to
PCB exposure.
The designation of PCBs as "carcinogens" is based exclusively on
observations of experiments wherein animals were given high doses of
PCBs. And by now, everyone should know that natural foods contain a
spectrum of chemicals that cause cancer in rodents (the hydrazines in
mushrooms, for example)-and no one is worrying about human cancer risk
from trace levels of animal carcinogens in natural foods.
* Second, the source of these "data" on farmed salmon was no mainstream
scientific group. Indeed, the EWG is something of a phantom
organization. A visit to their Web page leaves one wondering, "Just who
are these masked men?"
Two things we know for sure: There are no physicians or scientists
associated with EWG-yet they are advising us on how to avoid cancer.
Furthermore, EWG is funded by agenda-driven entities, including private
foundations committed to restoring the "natural world" and eliminating
the use of agricultural chemicals. EWG repeatedly urges consumers to
"buy organic."
Clearly, the technical sophistication of the farmed salmon industry is
"unnatural" and thus unacceptable in the eyes of EWG and their funders.
These basic facts spawn, if you will, two questions:
First, why were the media so gullible that they reported this story as
if it had scientific legitimacy from a credible source? Why in this age
of "transparency" did the media not tell us that the "data" were
generated by a group that had no scientific or medical credentials or
credibility-and has an ideological commitment to only "natural" food
production?
Second, why were scientists from universities across America-academics
who knew this report was bogus-not outraged, issuing press releases to
correct the record? Why did scientists and physicians (with the
exception of the group I direct, the American Council on Science and
Health) remain silent as critical facts on cancer risk were distorted in
the press?
Even more curious, why did the world's foremost experts on cancer
causation-the cancer epidemiologists at the National Cancer Institute
-not instantly respond to correct the record and declare that, contrary
to media reports, there is no evidence at all that trace levels of
chemicals that cause cancer in animals-including the purported PCB
traces in farmed salmon-pose a human cancer risk?
What's a chef to do? If the media headlines proclaim "cancer" and the
scientific community remains mute, the "silence-is- assent" rule
prevails. It's time not only to grill farmed salmon, but also to grill
scientists and the media for spreading junk science. Instead, they
should have called "tripe" when tripe is served.
Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan is president of the American Council on Science
and Health.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Sep 04 2003 - 06:47:36 PDT