Villagers wary of eating Tanapag crabs

Thirty-nine-year-old Tanapag resident Margie Palad remains hesitant when it comes to eating the village’s land crabs, expressing doubts that the crabs are now safe to eat.

“We’re close to the cemetery. Even though the crabs are good, I don’t like to eat those,” Palad said.

Palad is just one of many Tanapag residents who remain worried about eating land crabs from the village, despite a recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency statement that declared the crabs safe for human consumption.

The Tanapag Action Group was set to meet with Department of Public Health officials yesterday regarding EPA’s declaration, according to the group’s Sylvestre Iguel.

“What we need to hear are health professionals’ comments simply because this is a health concern,” Iguel said. “We appreciate the EPA’s efforts. Our only concern is to have the findings concurred by local health officials.”

Last week, the EPA disclosed recent sampling results showing that about 70 percent of all land crabs tested in and around the Tanapag Village in the CNMI had no presence of polychlorinated biphenyls and the levels of PCBs and pesticides found in the remaining land crabs were at levels that would not harm human health.

However, the Public Health Department had issued no public advisory yet to lift the ban on eating land crabs from Tanapag, which began in July 2001. The DPH had earlier advised the public to refrain from consuming the land crabs due to PCB contamination of soil.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had classified Tanapag as a formerly used defense site. Electrical, heat transfer and hydraulic equipment used in industrial and commercial applications contain PCBs, which have been shown to cause cancer and other health effects in humans and animals, including effects on the immune, reproductive, nervous, and endocrine systems.

Following the ban, the Army Corps treated approximately 40,000 tons of contaminated soil at an estimated cost of $20 million. TAG pressed the EPA in 2003 to conduct a new survey of the village’s land crabs to determine whether they remain contaminated by PCBs.

Iguel said that TAG appreciates the efforts and findings of the environmental experts, but he insisted that health experts are in a better position to determine the health effects of consuming land crabs. Residents remain hesitant to consume the village’s land crabs without the DPH lifting the ban on eating the crabs.

Besides awaiting local health officials’ stance on EPA’s findings, TAG also wants the environmental agency to conduct a comprehensive assessment of Tanapag’s soil, which it believes to be contaminated with other disease-causing chemicals.