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Canadian Research Suggests False Alarm Over Japanese Whale Contaminants

Contamination is the new Theory to prevent the Utilisation of Whales

General Information

Dr. Freeman’s analysis of the Japanese findings suggest that the current situation in Japan is similar to that “discovered” by scientists in Canada “thirty years ago.”  Then Canadian scientists found virtually the same mercury and other toxic chemicals present in the Japanese goods.  The first report of high levels of mercury in whale meat coincided with fears over the possibility that cetacean meat, skin and blubber being consumed by Canadian Inuits might be contaminated by radioactive fallout as a result of atmospheric nuclear testing. 

Dr. Freeman also suggests that many of the heavy metal contaminants found in the Japanese food products such as mercury are found naturally in the ocean.  Such metals originate from ocean bottom rocks or undersea volcanic activities.  Dr. Freeman suggests they many have been present in marine food products “for centuries if not millennia.” 

Virtually nothing is new in the Japanese study, according to Dr. Freeman.  Aside from failing to have their research published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, the four scientists also took a decidedly nearsighted approach that totally ignored existing studies on the affects of these same “contaminants” on the world’s arctic dwelling inhabitants in Canada, Greenland, Russia, and in the United States.  The insights provided by a wealth of studies including a comprehensive six-year study of Canada’s Inuit population have direct application to other whale consuming cultures.

Northern Canadians, according to Dr. Freeman, consume significantly more marine mammal meat and fat, and in greater quantities per serving, than their Japanese counterparts.  First reports of the presence of contaminants in whale and other marine mammal food products were alarming to Canadian researchers, the government and consumers alike.

Initially, Canadian officials called for a halt to consumption of marine mammals hunted for nourishment by native residents of Canada’s coastal communities.  They cited high levels of pollutants such as DDT, PCBs, HCH, dieldrin, and chlordane not only in the bodies of the cetaceans but also in the bodies of the people who ate them.  After a few months hiatus from consuming their traditional diet of whale flesh, the Canadian Arctic residents resumed “eating whale on a regular basis.”  Despite the presence of mercury levels exceeding recommended amounts set by the Canadian and U.S. governments, whale skin and blubber are considered the “most highly esteemed food” among Inuit populations throughout the circumpolar region.

This steadfast community of whale and marine mammal consumers enabled scientists to compare the growing catalogue of studies declaring food containing high levels of organochlorines and heavy metals as “health risks.”  Among non-marine mammal consuming people these contaminants are said to regularly result in developmental and neurological abnormalities as well as disorders affecting the reproductive, kidney, liver, circulatory and immune systems.  Researchers, however, have found no such health risks among the Arctic coastal cultures of with marine mammal rich diets.

Perhaps the most definitive study of this issue is the earlier referenced six-year, 450 page work by 80 medical and biological specialists entitled, “Canadian Arctic Contaminants Assessment Report published two years ago.  That comprehensive health study looked at the consequences of ingesting foods containing heavy metals, radionuclides and organochlorines (PCBs, DDT, HCH, Chlordane, dieldrin and others).  A one key conclusion reached is that “the well-known health benefits of consuming marine foods far outweigh any potential negative health consequences” and that the “people were not advised to significantly alter their current diets.”

According to Dr. Freeman, the four researchers who conducted the Japanese survey did not consider the health benefits of marine mammal products, nor did they factor in the quantities or frequency of marine mammal products in the typical Japanese diet.  They merely listed contaminants found in the foods. 

Recent research by acknowledged scientific authorities as the U.S. National Research Council and the Government of Quebec suggest the alarmist claims by the four scientists who scanned Japanese grocer shelves point to the health advantages of a diet of marine mammal flesh rather than the hazards the Japanese survey suggests.

The U.S. study found no evidence linking PCBs and other enzyme disrupters to any health risk.  The Quebec Government study found PCBs in mothers’ milk is different than PCBs found to cause developmental problems in infants and children.  A World Health Organization (WHO) study found that selenium found in whale tissue appears to block the toxicity of mercury.  The Canadian study advised the public to “continue eating traditional diets of fish and sea mammals” and “strongly urged mothers to continue breastfeeding their babies.” 

Dr. Freeman concludes his article with an intriguing example of why the Japanese government would be well advised to refrain from making policy decisions on prohibiting marine mammal products based on the supermarket survey being so heavily pushed in the popular media.  He quotes the work of two distinguished University of California cancer experts Drs. Bruce Ames and Lois Gold who observed that the typical cup of coffee contains over one thousand chemicals.  More than half of those are known to cause cancer in laboratory animals.  Which poses the greater risk?  Coffee’s potential as a carcinogen or a world population facing the start of a workweek coffee-less? ž
 

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