New York mercury study
It's been awhile since we blogged about mercury, but I stumbled across an article today regarding high levels of mercury found in adult New Yorkers.
One-quarter of adult New Yorkers, roughly 1.4 million people, have elevated levels of mercury in their blood, mainly from eating certain fish, according to survey results released yesterday by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
While New York is, of course, not North Carolina, the idea of mercury contamination
in fish is the same there as it is here. Coal-fired power plants emit
methylmercury which gets sucked into the air and precipitated back down
to our waterways, where it weasels its way up the food chain,
contaminating the top feeding fish that we love to eat.
High mercury levels are known to cause neurological and development
problems with fetuses and infants. For more information on mercury and
health, visit http://www.p2pays.org/mercury/health.asp.
The article points out that as more people turn to fish for a protein-rich alternative to factory-processed pork and beef, consumers, particularly mothers of young children and women of child-bearing age, will need to be cognizant of the potential dangers of certain fish and shellfish.
For a complete North Carolina fish advisory, please visit http://www.epi.state.nc.us/epi/fish/.
The discussion of the New York study on mercury has one technical error. The methyl mercury is NOT emitted from power plants, but is emitted in another form. It forms methyl mercury when it is deposited in waters with the proper pH and other attributes favorable to conversion to methyl mercury which is then taken up and concentrated in the fish.