It is very ironic that eating fish can be both beneficial and dangerous. Because it is a source of essential nutrients like Omega 3, fish is among the healthiest animal food products available. Nevertheless, many fishes, particularly the bigger species like white tuna, are sometimes exposed to dangerous chemicals that have been dumped into our rivers and oceans as industrial and household pollutants.

Toxic chemical substances like mercury, dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) contaminate our waters via improper disposal of industrial or household waste. On the individual level, we often contribute to pollution by indiscriminate dumping of waste material, usually when we let household chemicals flush into our storm drains. Roads and parking lots may also contribute a great amount of cadmium, lead and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) into our waters. Many of these substances can cause cancer and a host of other maladies like birth defects and developmental problems in children.

Aside from industrial and household pollutants, seafood can also be contaminated by natural toxins caused by harmful algae and bacteria. Fish, crustaceans and shellfish which have been tainted by microorganisms can cause problems like ciguatera poisoning and paralytic shellfish poisoning.

While no prevention method is 100 percent foolproof, you can do things to safeguard your family from toxic seafood:

Check your source of seafood. Try to research if the bodies of water from which the seafood you buy comes from is safe. If you are eating game fish or large fish species, vary the sources from which you obtain them and don’t eat the same kind of fish more than once a week.

Choose your seafood well. Fishes are contaminated via the process of biomagnification. That is, the bigger the fish or the higher it is on the food chain, the greater is its chemical contamination. Choose smaller fishes like tilapia and salmon over larger species like grouper, white tuna or mackerel. Also, make sure that the seafood you buy is fresh. Keep an eye out on signs of decomposition like cloudy eyes and dark spots on the body.

Prepare the seafood properly. Before cooking a fish, first remove the skin, the internal organs and the fatty layers that run along its back, its sides and its belly. Remove the mustard of crabs and the tomalley of lobsters. These are the parts where toxins are most likely to build up. Also, choose poaching, broiling and grilling as a method of cooking. Frying the fish will only lock in the harmful chemicals in the fat instead of just letting it drip away.

The best way to avoid toxins from seafood is to arm yourself with the necessary knowledge about which seafood products are the safest and where you can get them. In addition to this, you can do our rivers and oceans a favor by choosing household cleaning agents that are not harmful for your family or the environment. BabyGanics’ safe and effective household solutions are free from toxins and chemicals that would otherwise pollute our waters and, subsequently, the seafood we eat.