 August 21, 2002
"It's important to remember that, because of the risk of paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP), people should not be harvesting clams from this area anyway," said Janice Adair, director of the Division of Environmental Health. "However, because the reported levels of lead in the two DOT samples were so high, we collected eight samples consisting of littleneck, butter and cockle clams, and mussels from three areas in the Bay." Different species of bivalves
concentrate metals at different rates, so the department tested
each species separately, careful to remove any sediment that
might skew the results. Only two of the eight samples, one of
littleneck clams and one of butter clams, both collected near
the Sitka Trap Club, had levels that slightly exceeded recommended
levels for pregnant The littleneck clam sample from the beach by the trap club had a lead level of 2.64 parts per million (ppm), and the butter clam sample level was 1.47 ppm of lead. The US Food and Drug Association's level of concern for pregnant women is 1.7 ppm, and for children 2-5 years is 0.8 ppm. Golder Associates, which oversaw the collection and testing of clams for DOT, had sample results of 27.2 ppm of lead. They gathered 30-40 littleneck clams from two sites and blended all the clams from each site together. It is unknown what steps were taken to ensure no sediment remained in the clams. Scott Arnold, a toxicologist
with the Section of Epidemiology in the Division of Public Health,
reiterated the caution that clams not be harvested from non-certified
beaches because of the very real threat of PSP, which is a potentially
deadly marine toxin prevalent in Alaskan bivalves. He also explained
that "it takes chronic exposure to lead to build up levels "At this point, the Department will be working with DOT on the sediment contamination issues in the Bay," said Bill Janes with the Department's Contaminated Sites program. No decisions have been made about any remediation efforts. If people are willing to risk PSP, they should avoid harvesting clams from this area if they will be consumed by children or pregnant women. DEC also tested clams from the Old Sitka Historical Site and did not find elevated levels of lead in those samples. As always, care should be taken to wash all sediment from the clams before consuming.
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