TITLE: Officials criticize media coverage of pfiesteria
CREDIT: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
EST. PAGES: 1
DATE: 10/12/97
DOCID: RNOB97284083
SOURCE: The News & Observer Raleigh, NC; RNOB
EDITION: Final; SECTION: News; PAGE: B4
(Copyright 1997)
BEAUFORT, N.C. -- Members of North Carolina's media have played
up reports about the effects of the fish-killing organism pfiesteria
before any potential impact has been proved, a state epidemiologist
said.
"I think that the press is reporting too much fear,"
Stan Music of the Division of Epidemiology told the North Carolina
Associated Press News Council on Friday. He said that state
agencies have taken heat from the press for being too slow to
respond to hysteria that the news media created by giving too
much credence to inaccurate statements.
"All this fear damages people - damages their lives, damages
their livelihood, damages real estate values - without any benefit,"
he said.
Music spoke as part of a panel discussion on water-quality
issues.
Music said officials know that pfiesteria causes fish kills
and that researchers working with concentrated amounts of pfiesteria
on a long-term basis have developed health problems. He also said
pfiesteria-tested lab rats have developed health problems.
"The yellow lights are there to say that there might be
a problem," he said. However, several long-term studies have
not shown any human health problems caused by the organism, he
said.
Maryland's governor closed three rivers after a toxic organism
appeared last month, sickening or killing fish and possibly causing
illness in 27 people, but those organisms were not pfiesteria,
as some media reported, Music said. They were four different types
of cells that seemed to be related to pfiesteria and might have
similar toxins.
Fellow panelist Larry Ausley, environmental supervisor with
the state Division of Water Quality, said the media have overplayed
the issue in the area of quality of seafood as well.
Menhaden is the species most affected by the toxin, and it
is not a food fish, he said.
Panelist Rick Dove, riverkeeper for the Neuse River Foundation, said there are barge workers on the Neuse River who have developed sores similar to the ones found on pfiesteria-infected fish. He challenged Music to ask the team of doctors investigating the illnesses in Maryland to look at North Carolina residents.
DESCRIPTORS: NC; environment