Pollution of hydrographic basins has affected the flora and fauna that thrive in these aquatic ecosystems, and fish, which constitute an important food resource, often contain a plethora of potentially toxic chemicals. In a major research project on early @entity2359 effects of environmental exposure to @entity921 among residents in Southwest Quebec, fish consumption from 2 lakes of the Upper St. Lawrence River System, was surveyed as a potential confounding factor. @entity1 were selected using a random, stratified sampling strategy from lists of the Quebec Health Plan. Following exclusions, 273 @entity1 and @entity1 between 20-69 years were retained for the present analysis. A total of 103 (37.7%) reported eating fish from the Upper St. Lawrence. Although fisheaters and non-fisheaters were similar for most socio-demographic variables, significantly more fisheaters (65.2%) reported consuming alcoholic beverages as compared to non-fisheaters (42.4%) (Chi Sq. <0.01). To eliminate this possible bias, fisheaters were matched to non-fisheaters for the variables sex, @entity167 consumption (never or occasionally vs. regularly), age (+/-5y) and education (+/-2y). A total of 63 matched pairs were thus created. Paired analyses (t-test or Signed Rank) showed that fisheaters had higher levels of blood organic @entity349 and lead. Analysis of nervous system functions revealed that both groups performed similarly on tests of sensory function, visual memory and recognition, fine motor performance and some motor tests, but fisheaters performed significantly more poorly (p<0.05) on tests requiring @entity73 , word naming, auditory recall, and more complex motor tasks. The profile of deficits is consistent with diminished capacity for information processing. These observations were made within a study that was not specifically designed to examine the effects of fish eating from these two lakes, and the characterization of fish dietary habits has many limitations. Nevertheless, the findings are sufficiently compelling to warrant further studies, since fish from the Upper St. Lawrence Lakes are known to contain multiple @entity2359 substances.

Preliminary evidence of XXXX associated with eating fish from the Upper St. Lawrence River Lakes.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['women', 'Participants', 'men'] @entity921 :: ('MESH:D008345', 'Chemical') :: ['manganese'] @entity167 :: ('CHEBI:16236', 'Chemical') :: ['alcohol'] @entity349 :: ('MESH:D008628', 'Chemical') :: ['mercury'] @entity73 :: ('MESH:D003072', 'Disease') :: ['cognitive flexibility'] @entity2359 :: ('MESH:D020258', 'Disease') :: ['neurotoxic']
@entity2359 :: (MESH:D020258,Disease) :: ['neurotoxicity']
