"Until recently cancer was virtually unknown in marine mammals.
Today it is a growing problem and indications are that chemical contamination is a culprit.
Only 33 cases of cancer have been found worldwide in cetaceans, other than the SLE Beluga, according to Daniel Martineau.
Until recent years cancer was virtually unknown in dolphins.
Today a growing number of cancers are being found in dolphins around the world.
The susceptibility of dolphins to toxicants is made worse because dolphins lack genes that process these chemicals (see technical papers at back of this report).
Because of genetic similarities with humans it would be foolish to ignore this trend in dolphins.
Whole populations of dolphins are in danger of extinction due to accumulation of toxic chemicals.
Human beings who eat fish from the environments shared with dolphins afflicted with high levels of contamination would be well advised to take these dangers into account in their selection and levels of consumption of fish.
HOW DOES THIS AFFECT POPULATIONS, SUCH AS THE JAPANESE, WHO COMMONLY EAT CETACEANS SUCH AS WHALE MEAT AND DOLPHINS?
IT'S THAT OLD 'BIOACCUMULATION' AT WORK.
TOXINS, CARCINOGENS, ONCE INSIDE A HUMAN BODY, DO STRANGE AND TERRIBLE THINGS.
PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS – A LINK TO JAPAN’S DECLINING BIRTH RATE?
Organochlorines (OCs) such as PCBs, dioxins, PBDEs and many other persistent organic pollutants are known to mimic estrogen and other hormones.
They are sometimes referred to as endocrine disruptors.
Japanese who eat large quantities of fish, and especially those who eat whales and dolphins, may be exposed to very high levels of these endocrine disruptors.
Men may become more feminized and women accumulate higher than natural levels of estrogen and estrogen imitators.
A group of Japanese scientists reported in September 2007 that the breast milk of Japanese women tested was contaminated by PCBs.
The scientists reported the likely route of ingestion into human bodies was through consumption of fish.
“One of the causes of the human contamination is believed to be intake of fish,” said Sochi Ota, associate professor at Setsunan University. It should be emphasized that dolphins, at the apex of the food chain, have far higher concentration of contaminants than most fish.
Sperm counts in Japanese men, already low, are decreasing and chemicals that disrupt human hormones may be to blame, according to a report by Yasunori Yoshimura, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Keio University.
An analysis of semen samples from 6,000 Japanese men found a 12 percent decrease in the number of sperm over the past three decades.
Samples taken from medical students in the 1970s contained an average of about 65 million sperm per millilitre of semen.
The figures decreased to about 63 million in the 1980s and further dropped to about 57 million in the 1990s.
Environmental chemicals that mimic human hormones could have a role in the decline in sperm counts, Yoshimura said.
Japan has one of the highest life expectancies in the world.
The ratio of people aged 65 and over to the whole population more than doubled from 7.07% in 1970 to 18.0% in 2001.
This ratio is magnified because of the low recruitment rate of babies into the society.
Japan’s population is aging.
A flat population level is only maintained because Japanese are living longer.
Recruitment into the population has fallen to a record low.
Japan’s population was 127.3 million as of 2001.
The annual growth rate fell below 1% in 1977 and by 1999 had dropped to 0.16.
The number of people under 15 years of age dropped to a post-war low of 18.28 million in 2001, a decrease of 190,000 over one year.
Whether low sperm counts in Japanese men is related to this phenomenon should be studied on an urgent basis. "
NEW BIOACCUMULATIONS OF TOXINS IN RESIDENT COASTAL DOLPHINS SIGNAL DANGERS OF HUMAN MYELOMA :
Brian GM Durie ,Hematology/ Oncology, Cedars-Sinai Comprehensive Cancer Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA; and Hardy Jones, Bluevoice, St. Augustine, FL, USA.
"Dolphins and humans are exposed to the same toxins in seafood. Over 2 billion people worldwide rely on seafood as their major source of protein and 60% of people live in coastal areas. Resident coastal dolphins are exposed to marine pollution in the same fashion as humans who frequently consume seafood, thus any indication of disease in dolphins has implications both for humans who eat regularly from the same areas and/or are otherwise exposed to the same toxins.Although dolphins share most human mammalian genes, including CYP1A and CYP2B, they lack the ability to adequately catabolize type I and II dioxins, which therefore preferentially accumulate. Unfortunately, observed results of these bioaccumulations are suppressed immunity, infections and cancers particularly B-cell lymphomas and “myeloma-like” immunoblastic lymphomas (Bossart: J. Vet Diagn Invest 9: 454-458, 1997).
This pattern of diseases in turn corresponds with the local and systemic effects exemplified in Balb/c mice during pristane-induced plasmacytogenesis and in humans exposed to toxins. "
CARCINOGENS AND CHEMICALS
Tests on pilot whale meat taken from Taiji found 2.6 ppm of PCBs.
The government’s limit on PCBs is 0.5 ppm.
In humans, PCBs can cause liver disease, ocular lesions, compromised immune response, reproductive problems and cancer.
Dioxin, recognized widely as a carcinogen, is another toxin found in dolphin and whale meat.
An expert in organochlorine (OC) contamination, Dr. K. Haraguchi, has reported that one meal of 50 grams of whale or dolphin may constitute the TDI (tolerable daily intake) of dioxin for a person weighing 50 kg.
A single gram of blubber from the most highly contaminated dolphin sampled would exceed tolerable limits by a factor of three.
In humans, OCs can cause effects in reproductive/sexual development, plus immune system damage, thyroid disorders, nervous system disorders, endometriosis and diabetes.
In a study presented to International Whaling Commission (IWC) conference in Australia, Japanese researchers reported finding dioxin levels up to 172 times the tolerable daily intake in marketed whale meat.
The study was headed by Koichi Haraguchi of Daiichi University in Fukuoka, Japan. Researchers looked at 38 types of whale and dolphin meat sold in 1999 and early 2000 in Japan.
Dolphin meat showed the highest levels of dioxins.
Minke whales from the north Pacific were next highest.
Southern Hemisphere Minkes were relatively low in this chemical.
Cetacean products such as bacon/blubber are contaminated to a degree unacceptable for human consumption according to standards set by Japanese health authorities for dioxin-like compounds. (Haraguchi, 2000.)
Researchers concluded people who eat relatively large quantities of fish are at risk for dioxin-induced neurobehavioral effects with particular risk for infants.
(Simmonds, Haraguchi et al. Human Health Significance of Organochlorine and Mercury contaminants in Japanese whale meat.)
HIGH RATE OF CANCER IN BELUGA WHALES AND HUMAN POPULATIONS IN THEIR RANGE.
St. Lawrence Estuary Belugas.
The Beluga population has dropped from an estimated 5,000 to current estimate of 500-600.
The SLE Belugas were protected from hunting by the Canadian government starting in 1980 but so far there is no sign of recovery.
SLE Beluga are contaminated by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) produced by local aluminum smelters.
The extraordinary level of cancer in this population is consistent with the hypothesis that PAHs are involved in the etiology of cancer in mammals. (Daniel Martineau, et al)
Cancers found include epithelial cancer of the proximal intestine, gastric cancer, gastrointestinal epithelial cancer and mammary cancer.
Cancer of the proximal intestine is rare among all species including humans.
It is frequent in bovine and ovine species exposed to herbicides such as 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid.
An interplay between a virus and environmental carcinogenic compounds may be at work in the SLE Belugas.
Particles consistent with papillomaviruses have been observed in papillomas found in a significant number of carcasses.
Carcinogens are present in the environment of the SLE Belugas.
Benzopyrene was found in high concentrations in blue mussels in the Saguenay River.
Sediments of this river, part of Beluga habitat, contain 500 – 4500 ppb of total PAH dry weight, a concentration level significantly higher than Osaka harbor where PAH concentrations are 2870 ppb.
The PAHs originate from upstream aluminum smelters. SLE Belugas feed in sediments.
These observations suggest that SLE Belugas ingest PAHs in benthic invertebrates that may contribute to the elevated rate of digestive tract cancers in the population. (Martineau et al.)
(Martineau: Cancer in Wildlife)
“The rate of cancer in the SLE Beluga population is higher than in any other population of wild terrestrial or aquatic animals”.
Cancer was detected in 27% of adult beluga whales found dead.
The cancer rate of 163 per 100,000 animals is much higher than in domestic animals and humans.
According to Martineau, “The human population living in this habitat is affected by rates of cancer higher than found in other parts of Quebec and Canada in general. Some of these cancers are epidemiologically related to PAHs.”
Japan obtains much of its whale meat from it’s widely rejected pseudo-scientific hunts of whales in the Antarctic and Northwest Pacific. While Japan calls these hunts “research” operations they have been condemned worldwide.
Drive fisheries, primarily conducted from the village of Taiji, and harpoon hunts conducted on Dall’s porpoise in the north of Japan are additional sources of cetacean meat.
The Asahi Shimbun (Japan’s second most widely circulated newspaper ) reported in 2003 that studies of several varieties of whale meat conducted by the japan health ministry revealed that many samples contained unacceptable levels of toxic chemicals, such as PCBs and methyl mercury
.
The samples tested were taken from fat and muscle meat from five Beard’s beaked whales taken off Northern Japan. The ministry’s research group detected PCB levels between 5 and 11 ppm and methyl mercury levels between 0.37 and 1.3 ppm in the whales muscles. The Health ministry limit is 0.5 for PCBs and 0.3 for methyl mercury in sea food. The Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake (PTWI) for methyl mercury would be exceeded by an average consumption of only 16g of whale liver products per week.
The highest level of mercury ever detected was 204 ppm in the liver meat of a whale, exceeding the “safe” level by 400 times.
Japanese researchers report that approximately half the intake of dioxins in Japanese people comes from fish. "
~ The Geology of the Modern Cancer Epidemic: Through the Lens of Chinese Medicine by Tai Lahans
THE PUGET SOUND ORCA POD, aka, J, K, AND L PODS, ARE THE MOST CONTAMINATED MARINE SPECIES IN THE WORLD.
MEMBERS ARE ROUTINELY FOUND AT THE POINT OF STARVATION WITH SERIOUS SIGNS OF ONGOING MALNUTRITION.
THEY ARE HIGHLY CONTAMINATED BY PCBs.
THEY ALSO HAVE HAD SERIOUS REPRODUCTIVE ISSUES.
AND INLAND FROM THEIR RANGE IN PUGET SOUND, WASHINGTON STATE FEMALES HAVE THE HIGHEST RATE OF BREAST CANCER IN AMERICA.
[COULD THAT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE HANFORD NUCLEAR FACILITY IN WASHINGTON STATE?]
THAT IS A VERY INTERESTING BOOK.
SIMPLE, COMMON SENSE.
WE MUST ASK...SINCE WE KNOW THAT THESE TOXINS BIOACCUMULATE AND CREATE THESE PROBLEMS IN MARINE LIFE, AND THAT THOSE WHO EAT CETACEANS ARE LIKELY FAR MORE AFFECTED THAN THE REST OF US WHO DO NOT EAT THOSE, WHAT ABOUT RADIATION?
THE MARINE SPECIES COMMONLY CONSUMED BY THE REST OF US HAVE CONSUMED WHATEVER IS OUT THERE IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN.
RADIATION, JUST AS TOXINS, MOVES UP AND UP THE FOOD CHAIN.
WE CAN SEE WHAT THE MASS DIE-OFFS OF HUNDREDS OF MARINE SPECIES HAS SHOWN...ANOMALIES OF ALL KINDS, MUTATIONS, TUMORS, LESIONS, STERILITY, SAME AS ABOVE.
AND WE'VE SEEN THAT NEW ZEALAND AND OTHER NATIONS HAVE BOTH ISSUED WARNINGS AND/OR BANNED OR ALL BUT BANNED FOOD PRODUCTS FROM THE PACIFIC, FROM KELP TO THE LARGEST TUNA.
HOWEVER, IN AMERICA, WE HAVE NO BANS, NO PUBLIC NOTICES, NO WARNINGS, NO MONITORING OF FOOD, WATER OR AIR THAT WE CAN TURN TO ON A DAILY BASIS.
FOOD PRODUCTS FROM JAPAN CAN NO LONGER, LEGALLY, BE LABELED AS FROM JAPAN DUE TO THE RECENT U.S. CONGRESIONAL MANDATE FOR THE SAKE OF "TRADE PARTNERS".
LOOKS TO ME LIKE WE'RE IN THE SAME BOAT WITH THE DOLPHINS, WHALES, ALL MARINE LIFE....
WE'LL EAT WHAT IS AVAILABLE...WHETHER IT KILLS US OR NOT.
Kristi Miller, Fisheries Scientist, Tells Inquiry Her Work Was Muzzled By Feds.
HUFFINGTON POST, 08 AUGUST 2011
HOW MANY MORE HAVE BEEN "MUZZLED" SINCE FUKUSHIMA?
Alaskan Salmon, Pacific Herring, and Canadian whitefish are being found bloody, with cancerous tumors throughout their bodies.
THE CANCEROUS PORTIONS ARE CUT OUT IN LARGER FISH AND THE OFF IT GOES TO MARKET.
FROM THE ARCTIC CIRCLE TO AUSTRALIA.... FIRST-TIME CANCERS SEEN IN PACIFIC FISH.
For the first time in history, a wild marine fish species has been identified with skin cancer off the coast of Australia.
Caught on the Great Barrier Reef, coral trout have been discovered with large black spots on their skin, now identified as cancerous melanomas.
One researcher documented that 15% of these fish found on the reef show signs of skin cancer. The percentage may even be higher due to the fact that some fish may have died due to illness or consumed by predators."
THE NEW NORM...EAT IT AND SMILE, RIGHT?
UNLIKE THE JAPANESE, WHO HAVE A CHOICE TO EAT DOLPHINS, WHALES, WE HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO EAT PACIFIC AND/OR JAPANESE FOOD PRODUCTS, BECAUSE WE HAVE A GOVERNMENT WHICH SEES US ALL AS WHAT?
EXPENDABLE?
A Shared Fate - OceanCare
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