SPEA research parodied

When Ronald Hites, professor at the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs, recently reported high levels of man-made, flame-retardant chemicals in farm-raised salmon, few saw benefits for consumers. But satirist Harry Shearer, known as the voice of Mr. Burns and others on "The Simpsons," suggested a way to exploit a salmon's flame-resistant properties in a parody that aired on his radio show, "Le Show," and National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."\nThe parody depicts a family despondent over a recurring problem: Their salmon dinners burst into flames. \n"Get the fire extinguisher!" one person yelled. "The salmon is in flames again."\nA talking salmon, Sammy, then offers a solution from a fictitious company.\n"Hi, I'm Sammy, the flame-resistant salmon. You can do anything to me -- pour charcoal starter over me, even marinate me in kerosene, and I'll still be as flame-free as the day I was caught," the character said.\nHites' study, published in "Environmental Science and Technology," found that farm-raised salmon contained much higher levels of the flame-retardant PBDEs (polybrominated diphenyl ethers) than wild salmon.\nSPEA Media Relations Manager Debra Kent, along with many of her co-workers, received a link to the parody on NPR's Web site by e-mail Monday morning.\n"Everybody in this office was going online at the same time," Kent said. "You could hear people laughing in their respective offices because it was just so funny."\nHites said he thought the piece was funny and accurately used the information from the study.\n"I thought it was great," Hites said. "It's not very often scientific results are made into a parody that is on point."\nPBDEs are flammability reducers used in a wide variety of products, including televisions, mattresses and building materials. They are not chemically bound to their products and, therefore, leak out when products containing them are discarded.\nAccording to Hite's Web site, PBDEs have been found to damage the nervous and reproductive systems in rats. They are structurally similar to the better-known polychlorinated biphenyls, whose production has been banned in the U.S. since the late 1970s because of their adverse health effects. The European Union recently has instituted bans on the production of PBDEs, and California will institute a ban in 2008.\nWithout stringent restrictions on production of PBDEs in the past, levels of PBDEs in the environment have continued to rise considerably. \nLingyan Zhu, a postdoctoral associate in Hites' research group who studies PBDE content in trout and sediment, has found that PBDE levels in trout from the Great Lakes are even higher than in the salmon.\n"Levels of PBDE have been increasing very quickly in the past 20 years," Zhu said. "It's disturbing to see it increasing so fast."\nAccording to Hites' article, farm-raised salmon from Europe are far less contaminated than farm-raised salmon from Chile. Hites said salmon from Chile probably is OK, although pregnant women still should avoid it. He also noted that most salmon served in Bloomington is from Chile.\nThis fall, stores will be required to label whether seafood is farm-raised or wild and where the seafood originated. But until then, it will be up to consumers to find out how and where their salmon was raised.\n"What it means is you really need to be proactive as a consumer," Kent said. "Ask when you go shopping or to a restaurant where the salmon comes from."\n-- Contact staff writer Steven Chung at stchung@indiana.edu.