More and more often, we are hearing about mercury in our fish, and doctors keep suggesting to us, that consuming fish may expose us to mercury in unhealthy levels.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states that:
People in the U.S. are mainly exposed to methylmercury, an organic compound, when they eat fish and shellfish that contain methylmercury… the chemical form of mercury (methylmercury is more toxic than elemental mercury)
An organization called “Defenders of Wildlife” have done a study which states that:
The overall average of all 164 cans tested—albacore and light tuna combined—was 0.285 parts per million (ppm), more than twice the FDA’s cutoff for “low-mercury” fish.
And, the way that mercury gets into our fish is:
This problem is the result of harmful environmental policies around the world that allow polluters to release toxic mercury into the air, which eventually finds its way into our waters and ultimately our fish
According to the EPA health effects of persons exposed to mercury found in fish products include:
For fetuses, infants, and children, the primary health effect of methylmercury is impaired neurological development. Methylmercury exposure in the womb, which can result from a mother’s consumption of fish and shellfish that contain methylmercury, can adversely affect a baby’s growing brain and nervous system. Impacts on cognitive thinking, memory, attention, language, and fine motor and visual spatial skills have been seen in children exposed to methylmercury in the womb.
According to the National Autistic Society:
The role of mercury as a major possible cause of autism has come to light only in the last 18 months after it was realised that the amount of mercury preservative in many vaccines was well in excess of recommended safety standards
The Environmental Working Group has stated that one out of six children born in the US have been exposed to methyl mercury:
The principal source of high fetal methyl mercury exposure is maternal consumption of contaminated seafood, primarily canned tuna.
The advisory, however, provides no consumption advice for a number of fish where high mercury levels are a concern, including tuna steaks, sea bass, halibut, and many others.
People, especially pregnant women and children should cut down consumption of tuna and other fishes.
Heather Kuhn is an author who blogs at Todays News and the Blogger News Network
4 users commented in " Tuna Fish Exposes People to Unhealthy Levels of Mercury Poisoning "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackMy name is Robyn and I work for the US Tuna Foundation. Behind the Science, http://www.tunafoundation.org/tunascience/behindthescience.html, or Health Benefits, http://www.tunafoundation.org/healthbenefits/index.html, are sources of information to consider regarding tuna and mercury. Interested parties can get additional information at http://www.tunafoundation.org. Thanks!
To learn more about the risks people take when eating tuna, please visit http://GotMercury.Org to calculate what the EPA, not the tuna industry, thinks is the maximum amount of methylmercury you should expose yourself to in a week based on the fish you eat and your weight.
Well, most of the mercury is in the fat (brown tuna) that is in cat food rather than the leaner white meat tuna, but I always told my pregnant ladies to avoid tuna.
Now, if you really want to hyperventillate, how about posting about the Chippewa in Northern Minnesota who have to limit their fish intake thanks to mercury contamination of the lakes? And these are people who traditionally fished.
I found a tooth in my chuncky white can of tuna fish today. I ate two plates of tuna helper before realizing their was a tooth in my tuna helper. I think it was from a tuna fish, because I did not put it their would I be likely to develop mercury poisoning or autism. And if so should I go to a doctor soon.
5/14/09
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