Toxic Menu: Polluted whale meat & public health

In autumn 2008, the health authorities of the Faroe Islands recommended to their regional Government that “from a human health perspective … pilot whale meat is
no longer used for human consumption” as it exceeds international limits for dietary intakes, such as from the EU and the USA (Weihe & Joensen 2008). This is the interim dramatic peak in the history of health risks from whale products contaminated with PCB, mercury and other toxic substances. The serious impact on the consumers’ health is not a new phenomenon: Already in 1996, alarming findings indicated a reduction of neuropsychological abilities in Faroese children due to a dietbased mercury exposure (Weihe et al. 1996). Studies in other regions, such as Arctic Canada, Greenland or Japan, also showed alarming pollution levels in whale products. An increasing number of human diseases has been linked to this contamination, including Parkinson’s disease (Wermuth et al. 2008, 2000; Koldkjaer et al. 2003), suppression of the immune systems (INAC 2003a), and increased respiratory infections in children (Van Oostdam et al. 2005).