Nerve poison found in Baltic fish

Scientists have found nerve poison in the Baltic Sea in fish.

(15.05.2010)As Swedish researchers report in the science magazine "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences", nerve venom was detected in Baltic fish. For the first time, the neurotoxin neurotoxin BMAA (beta-methylamino L-alanine BMAA) was detected in fish in the Baltic Sea. So far, high concentrate functions of nerve poison substances were detected only in the tropical Guam Island group, the researcher Sara Jonasson from Stockholm University. Now, however, neurotoxin could be detected in the Baltic Sea.

The Swedish scientists point out that there may be a link between toxic contamination and diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. According to the daily newspaper "Taz", about ten percent of Parkinson's disease was diagnosed at the end of the 1950s. So far, only there neurotoxic substances have been detected in marine animals. The results are quite shocking: Although only small amounts of the nerve agent in whitefish, herring and mussels had been found, but in the brain tissues of turbot significantly high values ​​were detected. Fish brain, however, is usually not eaten by humans.

However, Ulla Beckman-Sundh, a toxicologist at the Swedish Food and Drug Administration in Sweden, still has no direct link between the toxic findings and health outcomes. "No one can say so far whether these finds have any significance for the health of animals or humans," Beckman-Sundh told the "Taz". However, the Food and Drug Administration wanted to follow closely the researchers' findings. (Sb)

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