Feds to conduct more crab samplings

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry have chosen five preliminary locations for the planned land crab sampling to determine the extent of polychlorinated biphenyl contamination.

According to Anthony Barber, on-scene coordinator and environmental engineer at EPA Region 10, a more in-depth and extensive land crab sampling will be conducted next month covering different sites to be able to get a more diverse population of the sample.

Three sites will be along the Tanapag beach area, one near the wetland area which is on the east side of Middle Road and one in south of Garapan, possibly San Jose, to serve as control area.

ATSDR together with a panel of experts will still have to determine the number of land crabs that will be collected to have a meaningful statistical data.

The Department of Public Health has asked the people to refrain from eating land crabs caught in Tanapag area after preliminary sampling results showed that five land crabs were found contaminated with PCB.

While PCB levels in the land crabs are below the standard established by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for fish, public health officials decided to issue the advisory as a precautionary measure.

The preliminary land crab consumption advisory issued by DPH was based on very limited and preliminary sampling results on land crabs caught in Tanapag village, in and around the vicinity of Cemetery 2, by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

During the risk assessment survey conducted last May, eight land crabs were taken within the Tanapag area but only five land crabs had detectable levels of PCB.

DPH said the advisory will remain in place to warn people against eating land crabs until such time that the results from a more extensive sampling are available.

The land crabs taken were among the samples of food gathered last May 2000 by EPA representatives as part of the assessment on food and the environment in the village.

EPA said the sample survey was designed to look for areas where there’s high PCB concentration and to characterize the overall quality of food. Food items such as taro, yam, clams, chicken eggs and fish did not yield any PCB level during the testing. (Lindablue F. Romero)