While Europe tackles a deadly vegetable virus — and Spain’s minister for agriculture and fisheries seeks compensation over false allegations as the origin of the virus — Criminal Court No. 2 in Santander, northern Spain, has issued jail sentences on three men who illegally sold contaminated clams for human consumption.
The court heard how, in 2009 and 2010, defendant Oscar MT collected clams from the Boo Estuary in the Bay of Santander, subsequently offering them for sale to the public in two of the city’s catering establishments knowing their consumption was harmful to health.
The judge ruled that MT knew that clams collected near the industrial iron alloy producer Ferroatlántica were contaminated by hazardous substances dispensed from a building next to sewage pumps. Following a ban in 2004, posters by the Ministry of Rural Development prohibit shellfishing in the area.
Excessive amounts of benzopyrene and high concentrations of lead in the estuary’s clams are a serious risk to human health as potential carcinogenic substances. MT’s clams contained a concentration of 848 micrograms of benzopyrene per kilogram of wet weight, vastly exceeding the maximum 10 micrograms permitted.
Admitting guilt, MT was issued a one-year jail term, which the court agreed to replace with a year’s community work in addition to a EUR 720 (USD 1,050) fine and disqualification from practicing any shellfish-related profession for three years.
The case comes after two men were sentenced in March to a year each in prison for selling 4.6 kilograms of contaminated clams from the same estuary to a fish retailer and guesthouse last September.
The men were arrested with 5 kilograms of clams by the Guardia Civil (Spanish military police), who found one seated in his car on lookout while the other extracted the clams. They pleaded guilty and were sentenced to custody each with EUR 540 (USD 787) fines and a similar three-year ban on shellfishing.
