Study: Gulf seafood cancer risk underestimated following spill

The Food and Drug Administration seriously underestimated the cancer risk from contaminants that can accumulate in seafood when the agency allowed commercial fishing to resume in the Gulf of Mexico after the BP oil spill, says a new study published today. The study is authored by Miriam Rotkin-Ellman and Gina Solomon of the Natural Resources Defense Council and is published online by the Environmental Health Perspectives journal. By using flawed assumptions and outdated risk assessment methods, the study says, FDA allowed up to 10,000 times too much contamination and failed to identify risks for pregnant women and children. Based on the findings, NRDC filed a petition today asking FDA to protect the public—especially pregnant women, children, and people who eat a lot of seafood—by setting a standard that limits the level of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in seafood. PAHs are chemicals found in oil, industrial pollution and urban runoff that can cause cancer, birth defects, neurological delays and liver damage. “We must not wait for people to get sick or cancer rates to rise; we need FDA to act now to protect the food supply,” Rotkin-Ellman says. The study concludes by saying the “FDA risk assessment methods should be updated to better reflect current risk assessment practices and to protect vulnerable populations such as pregnant women and children.” The complete findings of the study can be found here.