*Ø* Blogmanac | Destroying our planet -- and ourselves

Farmed salmon linked to cancer risk
By Mark Henderson, Times.co.uk

""People who regularly eat farmed salmon may be raising their risk of developing cancer, scientists said yesterday.

"Salmon raised on British fish farms are so contaminated with carcinogenic chemicals that consumers would be unwise to eat them more than once every other month, a major study has concluded ...

"The analysis of more than 700 fish weighing more than two tonnes in total found that farmed salmon across Europe and North America had much higher concentrations of 14 pollutants than fish caught from the wild.

"The chemicals, which include dioxins, DDT and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), belong to a class known as organochlorines, which are linked to cancer and birth defects ...

"The most likely explanation for the high levels of pollutants in farmed salmon is the feed they are generally given, which consists of a high-fat mixture of other fish, ground into fishmeal, and fish oil. As organochlorines build up in the fatty tissue of fish, they become concentrated in this high-fat food, and are passed on to the farmed salmon."

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Global warming 'biggest threat'
BBC.co.uk:

"Climate change is a far greater threat to the world than international terrorism, the UK Government's chief scientific adviser has said. Sir David King said the US had failed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"And without immediate action flooding, drought, hunger and debilitating diseases such as malaria would hit millions of people around the world.

"US President George Bush says more research is needed before he introduces punitive carbon taxes on industry. But Sir David criticised the Bush administration for relying too exclusively on market-based incentives and voluntary actions."

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