Most cite health concerns such as heart disease and cancer, while others express empathy for the environ-ment and animals. But many still consume fish thinking it is healthy or at worst a relatively harmless indulgence. Fish s dark side pollutants, toxins and heavy metals Fish are very sensitive to the high number of pollutants in the water around them. As British social critic, Peter Cox says, describing anything which comes out of this toxic environment as a health food is clearly absurd. Fresh water and inshore fish are the riskiest but pollutants are even showing up in deep sea fish as well.
Chemicals gather in their fat and bioaccumulate as the fish ages.
When one fish eats another the chemicals are absorbed in the flesh of the predator. High levels of PCBs are also found in trout, carp, catfish, bass, bluefish and mackerel. PCBs are particularly harmful to devel-oping fetuses and infants because it can impair development. The pesticide DDT was banned in the 1970s but it is still being found in the flesh of fish. PCBs, mercury, DDT, dioxin and scrombold can t be destroyed by cooking or freezing fish.