PEOPLE who regularly eat farmed salmon may be raising their risk of developing cancer, scientists said yesterday.

Salmon raised on British fish farms are so contaminated with carcinogenic chemicals that consumers would be unwise to eat them more than once every other month, a major study has concluded.

The most polluted salmon came from farms in Scotland, the Faroe Islands and Denmark. It was so contaminated that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) advises eating an 8oz (227g) portion only once every four months.

The analysis of more than 700 fish weighing more than two tonnes in total found that farmed salmon across Europe and North America had much higher concentrations of 14 pollutants than fish caught from the wild.

The chemicals, which include dioxins, DDT and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), belong to a class known as organochlorines, which are linked to cancer and birth defects.

Levels in the salmon bought from European supermarkets were so high that eating more than one portion every two months could raise a person’s risk of cancer, according to the guidelines from the EPA.

North American farmed salmon had lower levels of the chemicals, allowing up to two portions a month to be eaten safely. Wild salmon is cleaner, and can be consumed up to eight times a month without any negative effects.

The findings, which are published today in the journal Science, suggest that the cheap farmed salmon sold in supermarkets is far from a healthy option.

The British industry is worth £300 million a year, and consumers spend £700 million on farmed salmon in supermarkets. Sales have risen from 600 tonnes in 1980 to 140,000 in 2001.

While salmon is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which reduce the risk of heart disease and may protect against some cancers, these benefits may be outweighed by the environmental pollutants.

“Risk analysis indicates that consumption of farmed Atlantic salmon may pose health risks that detract from the beneficial effects of fish consumption,” the scientists said.

David Carpenter, of the State University of New York, one of the study authors, said: “The punch line is that eating the wrong kind of fish has real dangers. Fish that is not contaminated is a healthy food, high in nutrients, such as omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, that are known to have a variety of beneficial health effects.

“However, this study suggests that consumption of farmed salmon may result in exposure to a variety of persistent bioaccumulative contaminants, with the potential for an elevation in attendant health risks.”

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