Sampling by environmental groups has found oysters contaminated with oil along the Louisiana coast befouled by the BP PLC oil spill, a finding that casts doubt on statements by state and federal officials that all seafood tested here is safe to eat.
Batches of oysters were sampled on Aug. 2 and 3 near the mouths of the Atchafalaya and Mississippi rivers and laboratory tests revealed the animals were tainted by oil. That's according to Wilma Subra, a well-known Louisiana chemist working for environmental groups.
The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals says that since the April 20 Deepwater Horizon explosion the agency has found no oyster samples with high levels of oil contamination.
Louisiana has opened some waters to oyster harvesting, but much of the state's coast remains closed to oystermen because of concerns over oil.
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