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[Note below in this article: A lifetime risk of 1 in 100,000 was used as the warning level because using 1 in 1 million (the normal threshold) would force advisories on too many New Jersey fish.] Press
of Atlantic City DEP
on blues, striped bass: Keep them off dinner plate Fishermen who bring home striped bass or bluefish may want to savor every bite, because new state advisories released Tuesday warn against eating those fish more than once a year. Indeed, the strict new fish-consumption advisories warn New Jersey anglers to limit their meals of many coastal fish to annual affairs. Women who are pregnant or who want to have children should stop eating many species of New Jersey-caught fish entirely. The reason: PCB levels in 13 fish species pose a serious cancer risk to people who eat them, said Bradley M. Campbell, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection. "One sad legacy of our industrial history in this country is we have limited our ability to enjoy our fish resource," Campbell said during a Trenton news conference. PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, were used in transformers and other electrical equipment, but were banned in 1979 as a result of evidence that they build up in the food chain causing everything from cancer in adults to neurological problems in developing fetuses. Campbell said the sources of PCBs in fish are complex and could include everything from historic contamination to scrap metal yards that don't control their stormwater runoff. The announcement marks the first time in 14 years that the state has updated its advisories for PCB-tainted fish, and follows last year's update of advisories for mercury in fish. "This allows families to make informed decisions about the types and amounts of fish in their diet," Campbell said. The PCB advisories are based on a 2000 study by the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia that examined tissues from 300 fish. The study found that PCB levels have declined in some species and regions, but the state opted to base its advisories on more protective standards based solely on human health risks, Campbell said. PCB levels in bluefish have declined almost 40 percent since the 1980s, and PCBs in striped bass have dropped more than 70 percent, according to the academy report. But the new advisories warn people to eat just one meal of striped bass and one meal of bluefish per year in order to limit the cancer risk from a lifetime of fish consumption to 1 in 100,000. People are urged never to eat bluefish larger than 6 pounds, because PCB levels become magnified as fish age. Infants, children, pregnant women, nursing mothers and women of childbearing age are all considered "high risk" and are urged in most cases never to eat fish in the advisory. Joining bluefish and stripers on the statewide PCB advisory are American eel and hepatopancreas, the green glands of lobster. Another nine species - blue crab, white catfish, white perch, channel catfish, common carp, pumpkinseed sunfish, bluegill sunfish, redbreast sunfish, and brown bullhead - are restricted based on where they are caught. PCB advisory areas include the Delaware River and Bay, Newark Bay, Hudson River, Raritan Bay, some coastal tributaries (Shark, Navesink, Shrewsbury, Toms and Mullica rivers), and areas of Camden, Passaic, Bergen and Somerset counties. Not all New Jersey waters were tested, so lack of an advisory does not mean the fish are free of contamination, Campbell warned. Some popular coastal fish, however, are not contaminated with PCBs or mercury, including summer flounder, sea bass and croaker, he said. Eating fish is a part of a healthy diet, so the advisories must be kept in context, he said. "We will continue to have a vibrant and healthy recreational fishing economy in the state," Campbell said. The Jersey Coastal Anglers Association is always supportive of updated advisories, although they can hurt the recreational fishing industry by scaring people away from state waters, said Tom Fote, the group's legislative chairman. He noted that few sources of protein are free of risk. Chicken gets PCBs through its feed and farm-raised salmon has its own set of problems, Fote said. Campbell said PCB contamination can be reduced as much as 50 percent by cooking fish without the skin and fat, removing the head and draining off grease. Cindy Zipf, executive director of Clean Ocean Action, said the DEP deserves credit for updating its fish advisories, but she complained that the 13-page document is too long and confusing for the typical angler. Campbell said the state aims for a 1 in 1 million cancer risk when developing environmental regulations to protect public health. He didn't explain why that more protective advisory was not included in Tuesday's announcement. Zipf said it was likely because a one in 1 million cancer risk would place a "do not eat" advisory on too many of New Jersey's coastal fish species.
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