Press Release: 27th January 2010
Geneva/Tokyo: This week the World Health OrganisationWHO and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations(FAO) are holding an expert consultation on the risks of fish consumption and –encouraged by a coalition of environmental groups – for the first time thehealth risks associated with consuming contaminated meat and blubber fromwhales dolphins and porpoises (cetaceans).
Within the last decade numerous scientific findingshave been published, clearly showing extremely high levels of mercury,polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other toxic substances in cetaceanproducts on sale for human consumption. During this period scientists have alsofound a strong correlation between the consumption of cetacean meat with avariety of human diseases, including Parkinson’s disease, arteriosclerosis,immune subsystem suppression, and hypertension. Threats to children includeautism, Asperger’s Syndrome and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
In Japan, up to 20,000 toothed cetaceans in additionto over 1,000 large baleen whales are annually hunted and consumed. Toothed cetaceansmainly feed at the top of a complex marine food web and therefore may accumulateparticularly high levels of toxic substances. It has also been found, however,that minke whales, which are a filter species, typically feed lower down thefood web can also carry PCB-levels above Japan’s own safety limits.
“Despite the overwhelming scientific findings thatcetacean products can pose a risk to human health they remain on sale throughoutJapan and are even distributed to some Japanese schools as part of theobligatory school lunch programme” states Clare Perry of the EnvironmentalInvestigation Agency and coordinator of an international coalition of groupsconcerned about cetacean hunting and related health risks.
Sakae Hemmi of the Japan based NGO Elsa NatureConservancy said: “It is time for our government to stop the sale ofcetacean products and properly inform consumers about these health risks. Sofar up to 90 percent of the Japanese citizens are not aware of these risks.”
Only recently Japanese scientists published newfindings that show mercury levels in citizens of the Japanese whaling townTaiji up to 25 times higher than Japan’s average. In November a joint letter by Japanese consumer and food safety groups andinternational conservation organisations called on Japan’s Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and his Minister of Consumer Affairs and Food Safety to prohibit the sale of pollutedcetacean products.