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Risks Associated With Eating Blue Crabs

The consumption of blue crabs tends to stir up a lot of controversy. This is because there have been reports of blue crabs causing terrible medical issues in humans such as cancer and kidney malfunctions. The blame rests in where the crabs are harvested, the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, which have had numerous problems since the 1980s with a chemical pollutant called dioxin contaminating the water the crabs live in. This in turn contaminates the crabs' internal organs with dioxin, which is known to cause cancer and other serious health problems.

  1. Cancer

    • Cancer is often the most talked-about problem resulting from eating contaminated blue crabs. One of the most serious health cases involving blue crabs was the result of a hazardous 40-year dioxin spill-off into New Jersey's Newark Bay. Authorities were unaware of the dioxin levels, which are caused by industrial pollutions and dumping of hazardous materials into the bay. The dioxin in turn contaminated the blue crabs as well as the people who consumed them. Individuals were cautioned not to consume the crabs for their own safety and were warned of the possibility of cancer. The dioxin enters the crab's internal organs, which are then ingested by humans. Eating a crab that is contaminated with dioxin increases the risks of cancer by a factor of more than a million, according to the New Jersey Department of Environmental protection. Although the Newark problem has since been cleaned up, the threat of dioxin still remains --- especially in seafood where the fish and crabs rely on a healthy, nonpolluted environment. Dioxin has been directly linked to cancer and is thus referred to as a "known human carcinogen" by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

    Short-term Effects

    • All human bodies contain at least a small amount of dioxin naturally in the body due to the chemical's omnipresence in our current environment. This, on average, doesn't have adverse effects on human health. Eating a crab with traces of dioxin, for instance, likely won't kill you or give you cancer. The most dangerous contaminated crabs are those that contain high levels of dioxin, such as those in Newark Harbor which were sometimes even six times greater than the levels needed to cause cancer. Keep in mind that even crabs that contain small doses of dioxin ingested over time can still lead to health problems such as skin lesions, dark patches on the skin and decreased liver function.

    Long-term Effects

    • In addition to cancer, long-term exposure to dioxin or crabs contaminated with dioxin causes many other serious health problems. Dioxin pollution causes damage to a wide range of body parts and functions including causing cancer, diabetes, neurological and immune damage, disruption of the endocrine system as well as liver and skin damage. Reproductive damage and interference with hormones have also been reported although the dioxin does not get passed down in genetic material. Considering the fact that more than 90 percent of all human dioxin contamination is caused by sea life such as crabs, fish and shellfish, it's best to always be sure on the content and origins of your crabs.

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