Thursday, November 18, 2010

Don't Eat 'Em

Any shrimp, oysters, crab, and fish coming out of the Gulf, I mean. The Fed has fallen over backwards to assure us all that seafood coming out the Gulf of Mexico is perfectly OK to eat. Don't believe it. And we're talking here about not just the shrimp. Crab and fish too. Apparently the testing the federal government uses, well those methodologies are, according to reports, "woefully inadequate and permit high levels of toxic compounds to slip into the human food chain." Separate tests conducted by a toxicologist and chemist confirmed "unusually high volumes of crude oil and harmful hydrocarbons" present, and it was in food that was reportedly being sent to market.

Oil and grease were found in the digestive tracts of shrimp as well as in edible portions. Scientists say that the oil is in undersea plumes and in sea floor sediments, and the likelihood it will degrade quickly is virtually nil. One of the scientists who conducted tests said: "We've collected shrimp, oysters, and finned fish on their way to the marketplace--we tested a good number of seafood samples and in 100 percent we found petroleum." Dr. William Sawyer of Toxicology Consultants Assessment Specialists of Sanibel, Florida, said that the test conducted by the government are "little more than a farce." Another added that the FDA's safety threshold was "borderline absurd." It was geared to getting shrimpers back to work, but . . . what about long-term effects on human health? What about it indeed. Crude oil has elements that can cause cancer and which are toxic to the brain and nervous system.

Does any of this surprise you?

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