Pete L wrote:
>
> Can't find anything online...... We live at Cliftonville, just to
> the east of Margate, Kent. On our beach walks I have seen quite a few
> mussels. Does anybody know how to tell if they are ok to eat? There is
> a sewage outfall not too far away but I believe that it is treated
> now. The beach is relatively clean. Is it a case that if the mussels
> taste fine they really are?

I've read some interesting case reports on paralytic
shellfish poisoning. In one case in Canada, a victim
was so paralyzed that the emergency medical team was
convinced he was dead, yet he was not only alive but
fully conscious, and he remembers hearing the EMT crew
talking about just how dead he was. In most cases
that are that severe, you don't survive unless you're
put on a respirator, and some people have survived PSP
only because an alert rescuer put them on respirators
when others might not have bothered to try.