Is fish consumption safe?
Louisiana's vital seafood industry provides nearly 40% of domestic seafood production. Unlike Louisianans, most Americans do not enjoy fresh seafood, yet manage to eat over 4 billion pounds of seafood annually, most of it foreign, frozen, and fried! America's commercial fisheries now face crippling economic and environmental pressures from seafood imports, over-fishing, urban and agricultural wastewater runoff, harmful algal blooms, and coastal wetlands loss. As a result of these ecosystem stresses, seafood-borne disease now causes 37% of all foodborne illness in the United States. Despite recent advisories on high mercury-containing finfish consumption, seafood provides more than a third of the world with essential dietary protein, rich in cardiovascular-protective omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Louisiana and other coastal-state physicians can effectively curtail the rising threat of local seafood-borne disease outbreaks by supporting responsible coastal restoration and regulation of commercial fishing, and by recommending careful inspection, selection, and preparation of seafood.
School of Public Health at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, USA.
James H
JH
Diaz
D001906:Botulism / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D036841:Ciguatera Poisoning / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003014:Clostridium botulinum / Q000472:pathogenicity; D004787:Environmental Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005506:Food Contamination; D015386:Hazardous Substances / Q000506:poisoning; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008145:Louisiana; D008387:Marine Toxins / Q000506:poisoning; D008630:Mercury Poisoning / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D012307:Risk Factors; D017747:Seafood / Q000506:poisoning*; D013779:Tetrodotoxin / Q000506:poisoning
D015386:Hazardous Substances; D008387:Marine Toxins; D013779:Tetrodotoxin; C034101:scombrotoxin