FDA Issues Warning on Poisonous Shellfish
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WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration warned Americans on Friday to avoid eating raw or cooked mussels, oysters or clams caught off the Atlantic coast of Canada because they may be poisonous.
The FDA said about 70 people in Canada, mostly elderly, were reported to have suffered nausea and mental confusion after eating the shellfish. A 71-year-old died after going into a coma believed to be related to the shellfish, it said.
A plankton, a single-cell organism that produces a poison that can be absorbed by shellfish and passed on to humans, was isolated as the probable cause of the illnesses.
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