Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.18 By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
The director of Iran's National Inland Water Aquaculture Institute Ali-Asghar Khanipour said any claim about Caspian Sea fish being unhealthy is baseless.
"Some media outlets have exaggerated about unhealthy fish in the Caspian Sea. This institute, as an authorized body, rejects any such claims," Iran's IRNA news agency quoted Khanipour as saying on October 18.
We do not say that there are no pollutants in the Caspian Sea, but the fact is that amount of pollutants is within standard levels, he said.
Parvin Farshchi, the deputy head of Iran's Environment Protection Organization, said Oct. 1 that the Caspian Sea is polluted, adding that as of yet, there are no scientific studies that prove the connection of cancer and sea pollution.
She said Iran's Environment Protection Organization has warned about the sea's microbial pollution and demarcated the polluted areas.
Farshchi pointed to industrial, household and agricultural sewage as the main sources of Caspian Sea pollution.
"Sometimes the sea is contaminated by oil, but no studies have been conducted to measure the impact of pollutants on different marine species," she said.
She added that her organization is ready to cooperate with the Health Ministry to conduct studies on the relationship between sea pollution and rise in cancer disease cases.
Abdolvahid Fayyazi, an Iranian MP recently claimed sea food consumption is threatening to people, because it is contaminated.
Fayyazi criticized the government for not having a program to solve the sea pollution problem.