Oregon oysters contain 'cocktail of pharmaceuticals'
Native Olympia oysters in Oregon’s Coos and Netarts bays “contain a cocktail of pharmaceuticals and other potentially harmful chemicals,” researchers at Portland State University said Monday.
Those include pain relievers, antibiotics, antihistamines, PCBs, mercury and pesticides.
Individual concentrations of the chemicals are within safe levels set by the Oregon Health Authority.
However, the health risks of eating seafood that contains a combination of these chemicals are unknown, said the research team, which also includes researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.
“We’ve found oysters that contain pharmaceuticals, carcinogenic compounds and mercury, and we don’t know the effects or synergies of taking this combination of drugs and chemicals together,” Elise Granek, associate professor of Environmental Science and Management and fellow of the Institute for Sustainable Solutions at Portland State, said in a news release.
Oregon has two species of oyster, the native Olympia oyster and the commercial Pacific oyster. Oregon prohibits harvest of wild Olympia oysters because of historically low population levels, although both Olympia and Pacific oysters are commercially raised.
“Commercial and native oysters may contain similar contaminants because the two species both filter their food out of the surrounding water,” Granek said.
Consumers would have to eat at least 50,000 pounds of oyster meat to get a single dose of the pharmaceuticals found in the oysters, the Oregon Health Authority, Department of Agriculture, Department of Environmental Quality and Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a joint statement.
“Oregon is fortunate to have a system, set forth by a collaboration of state agencies with clear, active roles, for protecting our coastal waters, the shellfish species that call them home, and the many Oregonians — and people around the world — who consume them,” the agencies said.
Oregon Sea Grant and the Oregon Community Foundation funded the research. Results of the study were published in the Science of the Total Environment.
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