Various Topics on Alternative Medicine

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http://www.healthsentinel.com/news.p...st_item&id=807

Alison McCook, "Limit portions of farm-raised salmon, experts say", ABC
News, May 9, 2005,
Link: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=741970

People should avoid eating too much farm-raised salmon, which contains
significantly more of the chemical dioxin than is found in fish caught
in the wild, new study findings show.

After analyzing the dioxin content of farm-raised and wild salmon
captured in different regions, a group of North American researchers
found that farm-raised types contain between 3 and 10 times more dioxin
than wild salmon.

Using guidelines from the World Health Organization, the researchers
calculate that consumers should eat fewer than 10 meals of farm-raised
salmon per month, and limit fish that's raised on northern European
farms to 4 times per month.

Lead author of the study in the journal Environmental Health
Perspectives, Dr. Jeffery A. Foran, noted that essentially all salmon
that's not specifically labeled "wild" has likely been raised on a
farm.

He added that farm-raised salmon contains higher concentrations of
other toxic chemicals, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs),
toxaphene and dieldrin. And if consumers really want to be safe and
avoid harm from all types of chemicals, they should follow "even more
stringent" limits on salmon consumption.

"In essence, people should avoid eating farmed salmon," said Foran of
the Midwest Center for Environmental Science and Public Policy in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in an interview.

There's plenty of research indicating that it's healthy to eat oily
fish such as salmon, which is rich in the omega-3 fatty acids that can
prevent heart disease and other major killers. However, fish also
ac***ulate a variety of toxic environmental pollutants, which may put
people at risk of additional health problems.

Currently, more than half of salmon sold in the world was raised on a
farm, Foran and his team note. To investigate whether farm-raised
salmon has more dioxin than salmon captured in the wild, the
researchers tested salmon from different farming regions and wild
salmon captured in various waters.