HUNTERS WHO EAT DUCKS WARNED ON PCB HAZARD

On the opening day of the duck hunting season in New York, the State Health Department today warned hunters not to eat too many of the ducks they shoot because of contamination of the birds by polychlorinated biphenyls.

It said the concentration of the chemical pollutant, which has been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals, was higher than the maximum permissible Federal limit in a study of birds analyzed by state wildlife experts.

As a result, the Health Department warned hunters and others not to eat more than two meals of ducks a month after removing all the skin and fat from the birds. In addition, it said, if the bird was stuffedfor baking to add flavor to the flesh, the st uffing should be discarded after cooking because it would abso rb the contaminated fats.

It added that one variety of ducks, the merganser, should not be eaten at all because it showed a higher level of contamination from polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCB's, than the other ducks. Linked to Industrial Pollution

The ducks absorb the PCB's from the water they live in, and cooking does not destroy the contaminant, which enters the state's waters as a result of industrial pollution.

The warning applies only to wild ducks and not to domestic ducks raised for eating and sold in stores and supermarkets or served in restaurants. They are generally supplied from Long Island or from dealers who buy them from duck-raising farms in protected environments out of state. It was the first time in the memory of Health Department officials that a warnin g against eating birds of any kind had been issued by the state, ac cording to William Fagel, a press officer. But the department ha s issued warnings in the past against eating PCBcontaminat ed fish or crabs.