Japan refuses to imported whale meat full of pesticides

Return to Sender: Japan, last year, refused to sell the whale meat imported by two Norwegian companies. The reason: a pesticide levels in meat twice the level allowed in the country.

The Japanese Ministry of Health confirmed Wednesday the information revealed by environmental non-governmental organizations (AWI) and (EIA) denouncing these risks for years.

Tests conducted by the Japanese Ministry of Health in 2014 have revealed the presence of 0.2 ppm (parts per million) of aldrin and dieldrin combined and 0.07 ppm of chlordane. Japan allows rates of respectively 0.1 ppm and 0.05 ppm.

These three substances are prohibited or very strictly regulated in industrialized countries because they persist long in the environment and can accumulate in the fatty tissues of the body. They are therefore considered very dangerous to health.

"We conduct stringent checks because the whales tend to accumulate environmental pollutants, such as pesticides and heavy metals," said a ministry official.

In both cases, Japan has decided to get rid of the offending meat. However, the Norwegian imports rising in recent years, have not been suspended.

The Norwegian Food Safety Authority demented these results and ensures that its examinations have revealed that "low levels" of pesticides. "From our point of view, eating whale meat is safe," said Grethe Bynes, in charge of exports and imports within the structure.

"The Norwegian demand for whale meat has fallen in recent years", said in a statement the AWI. In this context, "to boost domestic sales and with an eye on foreign markets, the Norwegian government and the whaling industry fund research, development and commercialization of new products," he laments.

Norway and Iceland since the , the last two countries in the world to engage in commercial whaling, harpooning hundreds of whales each year. Japan are also used but under the guise of scientific research. The meat is finally sold yet on the market or offered to public institutions such as schools or hospitals, arguing, according to supporters of the judgment of the hunt, a taste of the meat of cetaceans yet declining.

Last September, the International Whaling Commission has hardened . This decision is not binding. Japan had yet that he would respect the before announcing in the wake a new program of 'research' in the Southern Ocean.