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News release - Nov. 7, 2003
 

A soon-to-be published study has found breast cancer rates were higher for pre-menopausal women in Wisconsin who consumed sport fish contaminated with PCBs, DDT, and PBDEs.  (The average age of menopause is 51.)   These toxic chemicals are commonly found in the Fox River, Green Bay, Lake Michigan and certain other waterways of Wisconsin.   Similar pollution is found in several other rivers and lakes around the world. Three zip codes in Wisconsin have unusually high clusters of breast cancer cases, as confirmed by Madison researchers.   Two of these zip codes are on Green Bay’s east side (54301 and 54311), and one is in Shorewood, north of Milwaukee.

The Friday Night Fish Fry May Be Risky

Overall, Wisconsin’s breast cancer rate is higher than the national average.  Breast cancer incidence has risen significantly over the past 15 years in Wisconsin.

“This study adds urgency to the Fox River and Green Bay PCB cleanup effort, and reinforces the need for a stronger cleanup standard to achieve faster, healthier results,” stated Rebecca Katers, Executive Director of Clean Water Action Council, a non-profit citizen group based in Green Bay.  “The governments chose a weak cleanup target of 1 ppm PCBs, when their own science says that 0.25 ppm PCBs is the minimum standard for achieving public health protection goals in a cost-effective manner.   They are allowing serious health risks to continue for more than 100 years into the future.”

“Better warnings are also needed to alert women and their families to health risks posed by fish consumption. Current efforts are completely inadequate,” added Katers.

Government surveys show that only 50% of Wisconsin residents who eat sport-caught fish are aware of the advisories, and only 40% of women and 22% of minorities are aware.    In the Fox River/Green Bay region, 50% of anglers consume contaminated fish, and 70-80% of minorities.

“The state is downplaying the contamination, to protect the tourism industry, placing public health at risk,” noted Katers.   Despite years of complaints from concerned environmentalists, only 40,000 fish consumption advisories are distributed in Wisconsin each year, enough for only 3.2% of the 1.25 million licensed anglers in the state.    The supply would be inadequate even for the few counties bordering the Fox River, where 47,000 anglers have licenses. 

According to Dr. Jeffery Foran, a toxicologist who reviewed the state’s health warnings under contract to Clean Water Action Council, the U.S. EPA has developed a risk-based fish consumption advisory designed to be fully protective of human health.  If it were used, the public would be warned to virtually eliminate all consumption of Fox River fish.  The Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services (DHFS) has issued a much weaker warning, which encourages anglers to eat some of the fish once per month, or even once per week.   DHFS staff members are holding workshops to encourage local people, especially minorities, to continue eating “smaller” fish.  The DHFS has abdicated its responsibility to issue honest health warnings, and should work with other Great Lakes states to immediately adopt the EPA protocol. 
(See Dr. Foran’s full critique) 

The Wisconsin breast cancer study will be published soon in the science journal Environmental Health Perspectives, and is already posted online.  The title of the study is “Potential Exposure to PCBs, DDT, and PBDEs from Sport-Caught Fish Consumption in Relation to Breast Cancer Risk in Wisconsin,” by Jane McElroy, Marty Kanarek, Amy Trentham-Dietz, Stephanie Robert, John Hampton, Polly Newcomb, Henry Andersen, and Patrick Remington.   Most are researchers at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and Dr. Andersen is head of the Wisconsin Division of Health, DHFS, in Madison.

For more information on the study, contact: Jane McElroy, UW Comprehensive Cancer Center.  (Phone: (608) 265-8780)

For more background on the link between PCBs and Breast Cancer (a summary of 128 study results, with abstracts), please visit our special Breast Cancer webpage. 

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