Analysis: Mercury from fish safe for cardiovascular patients.

On Wednesday 23th of March a new analysis revealed that the level of mercury from fish sources is not associated with cardiovascular disease, stroke or with a high risk of heart problems.  Scientists from different institutions such as (Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston) gathered information from 2 separate studies about men and women lifestyles, diseases incidences, medical histories and more than 173,000 responds were collected.

Researchers examine toenail clipping of 3500 cardiovascular patients and 3500 other people without the disease, both men and women. Afterward, they measured mercury and selenium concentrations in the toenail samples of the heart patients. The selenium shows to protect against the mercury poisoning. 

The conclusion was released in the New England Journal of Medicine that no proof were found in the study that mercury exposure can affect coronary heart disease patients. Fishes such as swordfish, tilefish and mackerel tend to stock up more methyl mercury. Thus the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has recommended pregnant women, toddles, and nursing mothers to limit their consumption of these fishes and other seafood.  Fish is good for health as it contains omega-3 fatty acids and needs to be included in a meal twice a week for a balance diet.

http://www.seawork.com.na

http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/651154.html

A Seafood Processor was fined $1.9 million for violation of laws and water pollution.

The UniSea incorporation in Seattle will pay a penalty fee of $1.9million for polluting the Dutch Harbor with toxic waste products.  “UniSea Incorporation agreed to pay the fine to clear up all allegations against the company”, said the U.S. Attorney Karen Loeffler.

“This penalty fee is an important result with great effect for the Alaska State, as it will certainly pass a significant message for environment abuse.” said Kevin Feldis, the criminal division chief for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Anchorage.

“The company violated the law in of 2005 and in 2007 by polluting the clean surrounding water with its wastes products.  The UniSea discharges were not reported till mid-January 2008, approximately 13 months later”, said the government. Over a period of 3 years, the company released numerous polluted wastes such as dirty remains of fish solutions, tainted oil, propylene glycol and crabs leftovers.

To conclude the fine, UniSea needs to review the sea floor to determine the effects of the waste and ammonia discharges.  The Environmental Protection Agency will test and supervise before coming to a conclusion on how much cleaning will be necessary.

http://www.seawork.com.na

http://www.adn.com/2011/03/09/1745868/alaska-operated-seafood-plant.html

Reasons why millions of sardines died in California harbor

With reference to the particular incident of dead sardines in King Harbor this month, research concluded that the fish died of intoxication. Professor of biological sciences, David Caron, and his team reported that indeed those dead sardines stomach contained toxin.

The causes of the sudden death of the fish were that a strong neurotoxin mixture makes the fish confused and unable to swim. Besides, due to strong waves, winds and a lack of oxygen consequently led the latter to instant death.  The team came to analyze the fish tummy due to toxic algal blooms in the coastal water for the few past years. Effectively, it contained a type of neurotoxine called ‘domoic acid’ which drove them to death. 

 The toxin worsened the stress of the fish by making them paralyzed and confused thus eventually they were found dead near the harbor.  The more surprising issue is that no toxins were found in the water and more test were needed to be done added the professor.

A week away from the drastic incident the public and volunteers are still busy cleaning up the sticky mess before it further contaminates the sea water.

 www.seawork.com.na

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/03/15/california.fish.kill/

Millions of fish washed up dead in King Harbour, South of Los Angeles

On Wednesday 8^th March 2011, the King Harbor water was full of dead sardines floating and decaying.  The reason of this drastic situation was caused due to a lack of oxygen in the seawater.  It was reported by the Department of Fish and Game that no sign of water pollution, algal blooms or toxins were found and the city authority said that it might take days and cost $100 000 to tidy up the water surface.  A team of 200 employees have been able to remove 35 tons of fish by skimming technique.  Nonetheless, more than 30 tons were left at the bottom of the harbor despite volunteers and employees further helped in cleaning up the marina by different other techniques such as vacuuming with high pressure pipes, fishing nets and individual hand catching.

Bill Workman, Redondo Beach's city manager said “The quicker the removals of the dead fish are done the better it is.”  The decomposition of the corpses will cause various problems such as high risk of bacteria developing and water contamination which can affect other marine life such as perchs, macrels.  Furthermore, the cleaning up needs to be done rapidly or else the oxygen in the atmosphere will also be affected.

The Marine Biologists expects to analyze deeper in this particular matter with modern and sophisticated equipments from another incident which happened in 2005.  The main priority is to clean out the harbor quickly and for this, the city is looking for more volunteers and is seeking helps from its locality.

www.seawork.com.na

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0310-dead-fish-20110310,0,7727294.story

Fish Spa dangerous for health.

A fish spa is a trendy treatment used for foot but has lately been closed due to hygienic concerns.  These fish can carry contagious diseases from one customer to another.

In Thailand and in 14 States in the US, people like such pampering treatment.  The president of the Dermatological Society of Thailand, Prof Nonagon Noppakun said that fish spas fail to keep a standard level of hygienic conditions resulting to high infection risks.  The professor stated that both the water tank and the fish can cause contamination.  The spa treatment consists of placing your foot in water containing loads of garra rufa fish (doctor fish) which chews the dead skin of your feet within seconds.  The professor’s query is to know if spas use to change their water regularly as anyone can catch an infectious disease during a treatment.  

Ankaraphol (spa employee based in Thailand) stated that; “It all depends on how the spa supervises the treatment system.  The spa management needs to maintain the hygienic conditions and cross check if clients have an open or infected wound.  One true example that can seriously threaten customers is; once a client came for a treatment with an open wound and few hours later all the fish died”.

Based on spa specialist, the water has to be changed according to the number of customers they have.  People should be more aware about the risks of fish spa treatment.


 www.seawork.com.na

http://www.bangkokpost.com/lifestyle/women/225416/fish-spa-closures-highlight-concerns-about-hygiene

Fish oil benefits cancer patients

Chemotherapy patients suffer from weight and muscle loss during their curing session.  A new search by the American Cancer Society shows that fish oil intake could prevent weight and muscle loss in these patients.  This new search gave great hope to cancer patients as there is no successful healing for people suffering from nausea and loss of appetite after their chemo session.  They became skinny, tired and making them become lifeless after their treatment sessions.  The intake of fish oil was taken to provide Omega-3 fatty acid and Eicosapentaenoic acid to help them gaining or maintaining their muscles.

In Mazurak’Search – it has been preceded on patients who took fish oil and those who did not.  Having 2.2g of Eicosapentaenoic acid in the blood make 69% of patient’s weight and muscle maintained during the chemotherapy.  The other patients who didn’t include fish oil in their diet lost 5pounds and 2.2 pound of muscle on a 10 week study of curing therapy.

Poor eating habit is stressing for radiation and chemotherapy patients as cancer make one become weak, inflammatory problems which is not good for the heart, muscles cracking. 

Fish oil can avoid inflammatory problems caused by strong medication or diseases. 

www.seawork.com.na

http://www.aolhealth.com/2011/02/28/fish-oil--muscle-loss-cancer/