Commonly used fish oil products. Fish oil samples were obtained from Norway, Japan, Spain, UK, Iceland and Germany. These chemicals are entering the sea from rivers and industrial discharges and run off from contaminated land. The pollutants are then carried by the atmosphere and oceanic currents to remote areas of the oceans. The main area where cod liver oil comes from are the waters of the North Atlantic.
Fish pick up the toxic chemicals through the food chain and their livers concentrate the residues.
A report recently released by Greenpeace documented the potential human health effects of these chemicals which include infertility, birth defects and altered levels of sex hormones. There is little regulatory control for organochlorines in food in many countries. Yet there is now mounting evidence that even small intakes of these chemicals by humans can pose a threat to health. But our research clearly shows that there is now serious cause for concern about the contamination of fish oils with toxic chlorine chemicals. There is a real danger that people who take these products for medicinal purposes are contributing substantially to their intake of toxic chemicals.