Oregon Health Authority Asked Coastal Officials to Keep Mum on High Arsenic Levels in Soft Shell Clams

A soft shell clam with the neck extended. The Oregon Health Authority plans to issue a health advisory on July 15 advising the public to limit consumption of soft shell clams because of high inorganic arsenic levels. Most of the arsenic is concentrated in the thick skin around the neck, which is commonly removed before eating. (Photo by Spill Spotter)


By Larry Coonrod

OREGON COAST—The Oregon Health Authority has put coastal officials in a quandary by alerting them before the start of the Fourth of July weekend to a public health risk but then asking them not to disclose the information before July 15.

The City of Newport was one of many local agencies that received an email last week warning of elevated arsenic levels in soft shell clams. In the July 3 email sent to Newport Mayor Sandy Roumagoux and obtained through a public records request, OHA environmental health specialist Rebecca Hillwig said OHA plans to issue a public health advisory on the recreational harvest of soft shell clams for the entire coast on July 15.

“Please do not share this information outside of your organization until the advisory is publicly released,” Hillwig wrote.


According to OHA documents, long-term exposure to inorganic arsenic can increase the risk of skin, bladder, liver and lung cancers. Chronic exposure can also cause wart-like skin problems, increase the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular problems and cause neurological problems such as numbness in toes and fingers. 

Coastal Officials React

Newport City Councilor David Allen took issue at being told not to share the health information publicly.
"I appreciate that the agency wants to give advance notice to local officials, but for me, the real stakeholder is the general public, including residents and visitors alike,” he said. 

“Keeping this information from them for nearly two weeks, as the agency had requested, is just not in the public's best interest in my view."

Lincoln City Mayor Don Williams said OHA’s request to keep the information under wraps surprised him. However, as a mayor of a town that is economically dependent on tourism, Williams said he appreciates the opportunity it gives cities to prepare a response to questions from potential visitors. 

Williams said he plans to talk to OHA about the procedure it uses to make health advisories public.
“I’ll push for a little tighter timeline because it’s not fair for me to have information, public information, and not disclose it to the public,” he said.

Not How Public Health Does Business

According to Hillwig’s email and the OHA spokesperson, the agency alerted state, county and local elected officials as well as public health departments. However, notification appears to have been inconsistent. Lincoln County Commissioners Bill Hall and Terry Thompson did not receive the OHA email. Nor did Lincoln County Public Health Director Rebecca Austen or the head of her environmental health department.

Austen expressed surprise at learning that the state had asked public officials to keep mum.

“That’s not exactly how we work in public health. We try to get the word out,” Austen said. “We try not to sit on that information.”

OHA provided some officials with two PDF documents containing information about the arsenic levels. The agency declined a request to provide the press with those same documents.

“We want to hang on to those until July 15th,” Modie said.

However, the Lincoln County Dispatch obtained both documents through public records requests to the City of Newport.

OHA Defends Letter
Oregon Health Authority spokesperson Jonathon Modie defended the request asking public officials not to disclose the pending health advisory. 
“This is not an acute exposure situation where people are going to get sick immediately upon eating these things,” he said. 
Alerting “stakeholders” which includes elected officials, tribal representatives and local health departments ahead of a public health advisory gives them the chance to prepare a public response and give OHA feedback, Modie said.
“We wanted to make sure people had the right information and they weren’t surprised by reading it in the paper,” Modie added. 


Limited Consumption Recommended

In the case of soft shell clams - and the pending advisory only affects the species mya arenaria — inorganic arsenic occurs naturally in the environment. The “unexpectedly high levels” were observed as part of the Department of Environmental Quality’s Statewide Water Quality Toxics Monitoring Program. According to the OHA documents, most of the arsenic is concentrated in the sheath covering the siphon, which clammers most often remove before cooking.

Not a Closure

The pending health advisory is not a closure of soft shell clam harvesting.

“Our advice is consumption be limited to a certain amount based on whether you’re an adult, a child or if you are a member of a particularly vulnerable population,” Modie, the OHA spokesperson said.

The recommended meals vary by location, but on the mid-coast between Cascade Head and the mouth of the Umpqua River, OHA plans to recommend the consumption of no more than two meals a month of soft shells clams if the siphon sheath is left intact and up to 26 meals if it is removed. 

What constitutes a meal ranges from as high as one cup for adults down to 1/4 cup for 2 and 3-year-olds.
The soft shell arsenic health advisory is separate from domoic acid and paralytic shellfish poison levels monitored by the Oregon Department of Agriculture. 

For up-to-date information on shellfish harvesting closures, call the Oregon Department Agriculture shellfish hotline at 1-800-448-2474.

Contact Reporter Larry Coonrod by emailing editor@lincolncountydispatch.com