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Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council,
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CV11 5AA.
Town Hall, Coton Road,
Nuneaton, Warwickshire,
CV11 5AA.
Tel: 024 7637 6376
Food Matters
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Spud's Down to Earth Advice on...CHEMICAL (FOOD) POISONING - FISH |
| This section provides details on the ways people can suffer chemical food poisoning from the consumption of fish. It includes information on the inherently poisonous puffer fish and ciguatera fish poisoning. Although most of the burden of marine poisoning occurs in rural coastal communities, holiday makers or visitors to these areas also suffer from both acute and on-going effects of these types of poisoning, which can on occasion be lethal. In parts of the Pacific region, cases of marine poisoning occur at the rate of 1200 per 100,000 per year.
The section also includes scombrotoxin poisoning, primarily linked to the consumption of members of the scombroid group of fish (e.g. tuna, mackerel, bonito). |
 PUFFER FISH
Poisonings due to tetrodotoxin have been almost exclusively associated with Japanese consumption of pufferfish (fugu) from waters of the Indo-Pacific ocean regions. The lethal dose of tetradotoxin for a full-grown man would fit on a pinhead. Tetrodotoxin is 1200 times deadlier than cyanide, and one blowfish contains enough poison to kill 30 people. Estimates as high as 200 cases per year with a death rate of 50 - 60% have been reported, mostly in outlying areas where the fish are consumed by people untrained to prepare it. However, there have also been several reported cases of poisonings, including fatalities, involving pufferfish from the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Gulf of California. Holidaymakers may therefore need to take care! Although the flesh of many pufferfish may not usually be dangerously toxic, the viscera (gonads, liver, intestines) of pufferfish can contain levels of tetrodotoxin sufficient to produce rapid and violent death. Symptoms All humans are susceptible to tetrodotoxin poisoning. The effects of the toxin are rapid, with the first symptom of intoxication being a slight numbness of the lips and tongue, which appears between 20 minutes to three hours after eating poisonous pufferfish. Subsequent symptoms include uncoordinated movements, and sensations of lightness or floating. Headache, stomach pains, nausea, diarrhoea and/or vomiting may also occur. The second stage of the intoxication is increasing paralysis, increasing respiratory distress and convulsions. The victim, although completely paralyzed, may be conscious and in some cases completely lucid until shortly before death. Death usually occurs within 4 to 6 hours, with a known range of about 20 minutes to 8 hours. Precautions/Control This poisoning may be avoided by not consuming pufferfish or other animal species containing tetrodotoxin. Poisoning from tetrodotoxin is of major public health concern primarily in Japan, where fugu is a traditional delicacy. It is prepared and sold in special restaurants where trained and licensed chefs carefully remove the viscera to reduce the danger of poisoning. There may always be potential for misidentification and/or mislabelling, particularly of prepared, frozen fish products. CIGUATERA FISH POISONING (CFP) CFP can occur with subtropical and tropical marine finfish normally considered to be safe, such as snapper, sea bass, grouper, barracuda and mackerel. CFP can arise from the consumption of such fish that have accumulated naturally occurring toxins (ciguatoxin and maitotoxin) through their diet. The toxins are known to originate from several algae species. Symptoms CFP produces a combination of gastrointestinal, neurological, and cardiovascular symptoms within 6 hours of eating toxic fish as follows:
Precautions/Control As the occurrence of toxic fish is sporadic, and not all fish of a given species or from a given locality will be toxic, to absolutely prevent intoxication no tropical reef fish should be eaten at all. SCOMBROTOXIN POISONING Scombrotoxin poisoning occurs after eating scombroid fish (e.g. tuna, mackerel, bonito, mahi mahi) and sometimes others (e.g. sardines) that have been stored or handled improperly. |
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