I believe vegetarians are going to have the last laugh and outlive all carnivores. Was the FDA negligent in its tuna mercury standards? Guess where most of the mercury pollution comes from? Coal.
Coal-fired electric power plants release mercury into the atmosphere where the mercury is absorbed and converted in aquatic environments to methylmercury. Methylmercury is a “bioaccumulative environmental toxicant” that is easily absorbed and highly toxic. Since it is highly absorbed and has a cumulative effect, methylmercury is magnified through the food chain by a process called bioaccumulation, and the results of this bioaccumulation can be found in certain types of sushi. Therefore, methylmercury, which is classified as a neurotoxin, can be easily passed to the consumer and their unborn children.
I’m not surprised of the results from the Times investigation, because the bioaccumulation of methylmercury through biomagnification is well documented. From the United States Geological Survey:
Biomagnification is the bioaccumulation of a substance up the food chain by transfer of residues of the substance in smaller organisms that are food for larger organisms in the chain. It generally refers to the sequence of processes that results in higher concentrations in organisms at higher levels in the food chain (at higher trophic levels). These processes result in an organism having higher concentrations of a substance than is present in the organism’s food. Biomagnification can result in higher concentrations of the substance than would be expected if water were the only exposure mechanism.
From the New York Times:
In 2004 the Food and Drug Administration joined with the Environmental Protection Agency to warn women who might become pregnant and children to limit their consumption of certain varieties of canned tuna because the mercury it contained might damage the developing nervous system. Fresh tuna was not included in the advisory. Most of the tuna sushi in the Times samples contained far more mercury than is typically found in canned tuna.
Over the past several years, studies have suggested that mercury may also cause health problems for adults, including an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and neurological symptoms.
Dr. P. Michael Bolger, a toxicologist who is head of the chemical hazard assessment team at the Food and Drug Administration, did not comment on the findings in the Times sample but said the agency was reviewing its seafood mercury warnings. Because it has been four years since the advisory was issued, Dr. Bolger said, “we have had a study under way to take a fresh look at it.”
No government agency regularly tests seafood for mercury.
Tuna samples from the Manhattan restaurants Nobu Next Door, Sushi Seki, Sushi of Gari and Blue Ribbon Sushi and the food store Gourmet Garage all had mercury above one part per million, the “action level” at which the F.D.A. can take food off the market. (The F.D.A. has rarely, if ever, taken any tuna off the market.) The highest mercury concentration, 1.4 parts per million, was found in tuna from Blue Ribbon Sushi. The lowest, 0.10, was bought at Fairway.
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On the Net: I’d Like A Tuna On White – Hold The Mercury!
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