Health threath seen in South Bay fish
Anglers who eat most of their catch at risk, group says

By Terry Rodgers
STAFF WRITER
March 5, 2005

NATIONAL CITY – An environmental watchdog group says Latinos and Filipinos may be elevating their long-term health risk because they eat most of what they catch in south San Diego Bay.

A survey conducted last year by the Environmental Health Coalition of 109 anglers found that 61 percent eat the fish they catch from urban piers between the downtown Embarcadero and Chula Vista. Also, 25 percent said they fished four to seven times a week. Among those participating in the survey, 57 percent were Latino and 39 percent Filipino. Many of those who regularly ate their catch said they fed the fish to their children, who are more vulnerable to toxic effects.

Although anglers have five piers to chose from in San Diego Bay, more than 72 percent of those surveyed by the coalition were concentrated at Pepper Park Pier in National City, whose population is among the county's most diverse. According to 2000 Census figures, 59 percent of the city's residents identify themselves as Latino; nearly 20 percent say they are Asian or Pacific Islanders.

Yesterday's release of the survey by the Environmental Health Coalition, a local group, was timed to influence state regulatory officials who in the next few months will consider sediment cleanup plans for the city's two leading shipyards, National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, or NASSCO, and Southwest Marine. "Everyone deserves a healthy bay," said Diane Takvorian, the coalition's executive director. "We're asking (regulators) to do their job."

Sediments in the bay were contaminated with heavy metals such as copper and zinc as well as with mercury, oils and PCBs from decades of military and industrial activity. The toxins continue to accumulate in the food chain, affecting the fish consumed by wildlife and sport fishers. The San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board has attempted to control pollutants from entering the bay since 1985. The state agency is charged with identifying those responsible for the contaminated sediments and ordering cleanup. So far, $25 million in public and private money has been spent to study the problem and clean up eight sites.

The health coalition's survey addressed some areas not covered by a 1990 county Health Department study assessing the health risk of eating fish from San Diego Bay. Among those surveyed by the coalition, 13 percent said they ate the skin of the fish they caught from the bay, a practice that could expose them to more contaminants than if they ate only the fillets.

The $309,000 study concluded that eating bay fish poses risks for children under 6, pregnant women, infants of mothers who are breast-feeding, people who eat the entire fish, and those who eat fish daily over a long period.

The risk of cancer and mercury poisoning was found to be relatively low from most fish species, except for mercury in stingrays and PCBs in Pacific mackerel. In response to the 1990 study, the county Health Department posted a dozen sites along the bay with warnings advising people to limit their consumption of locally caught fish. The signs were printed in English, Spanish and Vietnamese, but not Tagalog, the language used by many Filipinos. The agency responsible for issuing warnings on fish consumption, the state Office of Health Hazard Assessment, has never issued an advisory for fish from San Diego Bay.

Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña of San Diego and State Sen. Deborah Ortiz of Sacramento attended a news conference with the Environmental Health Coalition yesterday in National City to voice concerns over the survey's findings. "I think they've made the compelling case here" that Latinos and Filipinos are exposed to greater health risk from contaminated fish, Ortiz said. "We want equal justice and protection across class levels." Saldaña said: "San Diego Bay is our front yard. We need to clean up our front yard. The unfortunate truth is we have a legacy of pollution to deal with."

Officials for the Port of San Diego, who operate the fishing piers in San Diego Bay, said they had not seen the survey and could not comment on its findings. Gary Erbeck, the county's environmental health director, said he also had not seen the survey but he applauded the effort to keep consumers informed. People who eat fish from the bay should limit their consumption to no more than 8 ounces per week, an amount set for all sport-caught fish in the state, he said. "I'm a big advocate of people knowing what they are eating," he said.

The results of the coalition's survey are similar to a 1999 study by the state of people who ate their catch from San Francisco Bay, where an advisory on limiting consumption has been in effect since 1994. That study found that one in 10 anglers, especially Asians and African-Americans, were eating more locally caught fish than the state recommends.