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Global Assessment of Organic Contaminants in Farmed Salmon
Ronald A. Hites,1*Jeffery A. Foran,2David O. Carpenter,3M. Coreen Hamilton,4Barbara A. Knuth,5Steven J. Schwager6
The annual global production of farmed salmon has increasedby a factor of 40 during the past two decades. Salmon from farmsin northern Europe, North America, and Chile are now availablewidely year-round at relatively low prices. Salmon farms havebeen criticized for their ecological effects, but the potentialhuman health risks of farmed salmon consumption have not beenexamined rigorously. Having analyzed over 2 metric tons of farmedand wild salmon from around the world for organochlorine contaminants,we show that concentrations of these contaminants are significantlyhigher in farmed salmon than in wild. European-raised salmonhave significantly greater contaminant loads than those raisedin North and South America, indicating the need for furtherinvestigation into the sources of contamination. Risk analysisindicates that consumption of farmed Atlantic salmon may posehealth risks that detract from the beneficial effects of fishconsumption.
1 School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. 2 Citizens for a Better Environment, Milwaukee, WI 53202, USA. 3 Institute for Health and the Environment, University at Albany, Rensselaer, NY 12144, USA. 4 AXYS Analytical Services, Post Office Box 2219, 2045 Mills Road, Sidney, British Columbia, Canada V8L 3S8. 5 Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. 6 Department of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: HitesR{at}Indiana.edu
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