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Mar 26,2006 - Apr 2,2006 |
Too Many Antibiotics in Our Food
Toronto biologist and physician Dr. Victor Fornasier warns about risks to our health
By Niccolò Marras
Originally Published: 2004-02-29
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Dr. Victor Fornasier
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Food, our primary support, is not only a pleasure but also a danger and an everyday concern. It can trigger several illnesses and be less nourishing than before.
In recent weeks these concerns have focussed on salmon, both wild - increasingly scarce due to overfishing carried out by Americans along the Pacific coast - and harvest.
Harvest salmon has been recently accused of causing cancer; some researchers allege that it contains high concentrations of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs).
One of Canada's most prestigious researchers of Italian origin, University of Toronto Professor Victor Fornasier, biologist and laboratory physician, virologist at St. Michael's Hospital, maintains that farmed salmon bears no risk of cancer, but is not safe either, much like many other foods.
"According to analyses, toxicity levels are well below the guidelines given by Health Canada (Health Protection Branch)," said Fornasier. "Wild salmons also have a slight level of toxicity, while farmed ones have three times as much. But we're at very low levels, lower than the risk threshold. We need not worry about cancer."
A real problem, said Dr. Fornasier, is the toxic "bombardment" our organisms suffer from different sources, with salmon being just an example in a list of foods that also includes chicken, fruit, vegetables, and so on.
"Salmon is a very popular food," continued Fornasier. "Along the Pacific coast, Americans are fishing like there's no tomorrow, and the salmon population is fast diminishing. The industry, in order to cope with an ever-increasing demand, started harvesting salmon in controlled environments." But raising salmon in captivity creates numerous sanitary and financial problems, and that's where the danger for consumers comes from.
"In these fish farms," underscored Fornasier, "salmons live in close proximity to one another, and their growth is forced with special feed. Their growth cycle lasts one year instead of two, so by the time they're ready for the market they cost much less."
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