ROMPENDO BARREIRAS INTRANSPONÍVEIS - FARAÓ NO SÉCULO XXI NA DINAMARCA & ILHAS FAROÉ

ROMPENDO BARREIRAS INTRANSPONÍVEIS - FARAÓ NO SÉCULO XXI NA DINAMARCA & ILHAS FAROÉ
Upload feito originalmente por MIRIAM GODET

WARNING: Do not eat whale meat
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by DEBORA MacKAENZIE
http://www.cdnn.info/news/eco/e081130.html

FAROE ISLANDS (30 Nov 2008) — Chief medical officers of the Faroe Islands have recommended that pilot whales no longer be considered fit for human consumption, because they are toxic - as revealed by research on the Faroes themselves.

The remote Atlantic islands, situated between Scotland and Iceland, have been one of the last strongholds of traditional whaling, with thousands of small pilot whales killed every year, and eaten by most Faroese.

Anti-whaling groups have long protested, but the Faroese argued that whaling is part of their culture - an argument adopted by large-scale whalers in Japan and Norway.

But today in a statement to the islanders, chief medical officers Pál Weihe and Høgni Debes Joensen announced that pilot whale meat and blubber contains too much mercury, PCBs and DDT derivatives to be safe for human consumption.

"It is with great sadness that this recommendation is provided," they said. "The pilot whale has kept many Faroese alive through the centuries."

But in "a bitter irony", they said, research on the impact of the pollutants on the Faroese themselves has shown that mercury, especially, causes lasting damage.

The work has revealed damage to fetal neural development, high blood pressure, and impaired immunity in children, as well as increased rates of Parkinson's disease, circulatory problems and possibly infertility in adults. The Faroes data renewed concerns about low-level mercury exposures elsewhere.