The problem with scare media like that is that it does nothing to put the risk in context. What is the actual danger from eating fish with high levels of PCBs? The EPA guidance is based on a 1 in 100,000 increase in cancer risk over 70 years, based on extrapolating from animal testing to humans. There is no real scientific evidence that eating fish with elevated PCBs actually results in a measurable increase in cancer risk: https://seafood.oregonstate.edu/sites/agscid7/files/snic/pcb....
To put that into perspective, moving from New York to Chicago will increase your risk of being murdered in a single year by 15 in 100,000, and your 70-year risk of being murdered by 1 in 100. Smoking and then quitting raises your lifetime risk of lung cancer by 3-5 in 100.
> The problem with scare media like that is that it does nothing to put the risk in context. What is the actual danger from eating fish with high levels of PCBs
The problem with not watching the documentary you choose to comment on is that you'll end up strawmanning the video you didn't watch or responding with a red herring.
If you had watched the documentary, you would have known that the issue goes far, far beyond PCBs.
I’m aware of the other problems with open aquaculture. But OP referred to the “toxic” nature of the fish. What’s “toxic” besides the PCBs? Farmed salmon is lower in mercury, or example.
(Also, you’re right, I didn’t watch the videos. As a rule, I don’t watch informational content in video form, because it’s a stupid way to present information. They’re geared to obfuscating and emotionalizing topics in ways that are harder to do in written documents with citations and footnotes.)
> But OP referred to the “toxic” nature of the fish. What’s “toxic” besides the PCBs?
If you had watched the documentary you commented on, you would know. Insecticides, dioxins, various neurotoxins, heavy metals, and various toxic waste chemicals from oil production and industry.
> Farmed salmon is lower in mercury, or example.
If you had watched the documentary you commented on, you would know that this is not necessarily true, and not at all true for the regions that the video covered.
