Chinese blue crabs containing lead distributed

The Public Prosecutor`s Office has launched an investigation into imported frozen blue crabs from China containing lead, which is deadly to the human body, being distributed in the domestic market.

The Inchon District Prosecutor`s Office arrested a Yang (Age 43, from Dangjin-gun, South Choongchung Province) August 21 on charges of violating the Food Sanitation Act.

According to the Public Prosecutor`s Office, Yang allegedly imported 13 tons (worth about 270 million won) of blue crabs containing lead on Jun. 1 through W Marine Products, located in the port city of Inchon, and sold them. The Public Prosecutor`s Office said there were 2 to 3 crabs containing 75 grams to 100 grams of lead in one box of blue crabs imported by Yang. Large amounts of lead were apparently put into the crabs in order to increase their weight, it added.

Yang is strongly denying the allegations, insisting he only realized the legs of the blue crabs contained lead later on and has no idea who injected them with lead.

As a result of blue crab vendors in the Inchon region claiming that the carapaces and legs of frozen blue crabs imported from China since April contained lead, the Public Prosecutor`s Office is expanding its investigations to target other blue crab importers.

Meanwhile, the Inchon Branch Office of the National Marine Products Quarantine Station was notified belatedly that the frozen blue crabs contained lead and has started preparing countermeasures.

Moon, Chul-Soo (Age 50), the director of the Marine Products Quarantine Station, explained that blue crabs, which are imported in packaged boxes, are only inspected by the naked eye when they pass through quarantine stations, making it impossible to determine whether they contain lead. The quarantine stations now plan to install metal detectors, he added.

1137 tons of frozen blue crab were imported through Inchon Port from April until the end of June, and over 700 tons have already been distributed in the market. It had been planned to distribute the remainder before and after the Korean Thanksgiving Day.

Professor Lee Chul-Ho of the Industrial Medicine Department of the Medical College, Inha University, said that the toxicity of lead is the highest among heavy metals. He noted that once it is absorbed by the human body it is not excreted and can accumulate, possibly causing fatal symptoms such as neurological disorders. In the case that lead vapor created during the cooking process is inhaled, it is especially dangerous, as the human body absorption rate is increased.