What You Need to Know About Mercury in Fish and Shellfish

For those of us that choose organic foods we do so with the belief that consuming foods grown without chemical pesticides and fertilizers will reduce our intake of poisons into our bodies. We do so at a time when governmental bodies do not support this with health warnings about pesticides in produce.

The EPA & FDA still remain under-cautious about chemicals in our food. So, when they do issue health warnings about food consumption it is worthy of notice.

The EPA & FDA Advice about mercury in seafood just helps to indicate that we have a serious problem with seafood contamination.

At Organic Connection we are fussier about foods - we don't want to be offering you foods with serious health concerns. Hence the reason for our small, carefully chosen selection of seafoods.

We offer Wild Alaskan Salmon, Pollock (Alaskan) & Organic Shrimp - all known to be low in mercury and sustainably produced. CNN Seafood Video

Government warning about seafood consumption

Mercury contamination of fish warrants worldwide public warning

The health risks posed by mercury contaminated fish is sufficient to warrant issuing a worldwide general warning to the public - especially children and women of childbearing age-to be careful about how much and which fish they eat. That is one of the key findings comprising "The Madison Declaration on Mercury Pollution" published in March in a special issue of the international science journal Ambio.

Developed at the Eighth International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant last August in Madison, Wis., the declaration is a synopsis of the latest scientific knowledge about the danger posed by mercury pollution. It presents 33 principal findings from five synthesis papers prepared by the world's leading mercury scientists and published in the same issue of Ambio. The declaration and supporting papers summarize what is currently known about the sources and movement of mercury in the atmosphere, the socioeconomic and health effects of mercury pollution on human populations, and its effects on the world's fisheries and wildlife.
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Why Grocery Stores Should Tell Parents About Mercury in Fish

Nationwide pollution from power plants, waste disposal and incinerators, chlorine plants and other sources have contaminated the fish we eat with mercury. Mercury is a dangerous neurotoxin that has been linked to learning disabilities and developmental delays in children and can damage the heart, nervous system, or kidneys of adults.

Fish can be a good, healthy food source. Fish is protein rich, low in fat and can even protect against heart disease. Unfortunately, this otherwise healthy food has been contaminated by mercury pollution and many species can be unsafe to eat. Forty-five states have issued advisories warning sensitive populations about the dangers of eating mercury contaminated fish.

read more (Ocean.Org)

Chlorine Plants: Major, Overlooked Source of Mercury Pollution

As the extent of mercury contamination in our environment, our bodies and our food comes to light, concern over mercury pollution is increasing. While most media and public attention has focused on coal-burning power plants, most people remain unaware that a small subset of the chlorine industry makes a major - and completely preventable - contribution to the global mercury crisis.

Chlorine is a chemical building-block used in everything from swimming pools to plastic tents to paper towels. In 1894, a process was devised to produce chlorine by pumping a saltwater solution (brine) through a vat of mercury, or "mercury-cell," that catalyzes an electrolytic chemical reaction. Newer technologies that do not use mercury have been developed, but a number of plants around the world continue to use the outdated technology.

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Compact fluorescent light bulbs contaminate the environment with 30,000 pounds of mercury each year

by Mike Adams, June 20, 2007 .

A compact fluorescent light is a type of energy-saving bulb that fits into a standard light bulb socket or plugs into a small lighting fixture, and right now, compact fluorescents seem to be gaining in popularity. But did you know they can also be toxic to your home and the environment?

Fluorescent lights are filled with a gas containing low-pressure mercury vapor and argon. Fluorescent light bulbs are more energy efficient than incandescent light bulbs of an equivalent brightness, and the efficiency of fluorescent lighting owes much to low-pressure mercury photon discharges. But fluorescents don't produce a steady light, and they burn out more quickly when cycled frequently; they also contain items such as fluorine, neon, and lead powder as well as mercury.

Measuring the environmental impact of mercury use in a particular product is more complicated than you might think. Mercury is an essential element in millions of fluorescent lamps throughout the world, and as those lamps are thrown into landfill, the mercury can escape and contribute to air and water pollution. (It can easily leach into groundwater supplies.)

Mercury (also called 'quicksilver') is a known neurotoxin, and elevated blood mercury levels may lead to retardation and deformities in children. In America, 1 in 6 children born every year have been exposed to mercury levels so high that they are potentially at risk for learning disabilities, motor skill impairment and short-term memory loss.

Breaking one mercury light bulb in your home can contaminate your home to such a degree that hazardous materials experts are needed to remove the mercury. (At great cost, too. A typical mercury removal effort involving the breaking of a single fluorescent light can cost several thousand dollars.) The idea of allowing mercury to be placed in an easily breakable consumer product is fraught with public safety risks. In fact, it required a special exemption from the EPA to allow mercury-fluorescent lamps to be sold to consumers in the first place.

When a fluorescent light breaks, its vapors quickly escape and can be inhaled and absorbed through the skin. Most compounds of mercury are toxic, especially its organic compounds (such as methyl mercury).

read more (NewsTarget.com)

Flu Shots Contain Mercury

A survey of over 9,000 Americans found that an overwhelming majority of people had no idea their flu shots contain mercury. "More than 75 percent of Americans feel a mercury-containing flu shot should not be given to a pregnant woman or a child," said Lisa Handley, a founding parent of PutChildrenFirst.org, the group that organized the survey. Handley's own son, Jamison, had an adverse reaction to a flu shot containing mercury in 2003. "I know firsthand how life-changing a flu shot with mercury can be, since our son began his regression into autism after his flu shot."

In 1999, government agencies called for the removal of Thimerosal, the mercury-based preservative in most vaccines. Then, in 2001, the American Academy of Pediatrics stated that, "mercury in all of its forms is toxic to the fetus and children." Despite these actions, 90 percent of this season's flu vaccines still contain Thimerosal.

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FDA Ignoring Dangerous Mercury Levels in Canned Tuna

From Agribusiness Examiner #270
By Al Krebs
7/18/03

TUNA INDUSTRY'S UNDUE INFLUENCE ON FDA, POSSIBLY PUTTING CONSUMERS AT RISK, EXAMINED ON PBS'S "NOW" WITH BILL MOYERS

"Now" with Bill Moyers on PBS recently examined how the influence of the tuna industry on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may be putting Americans and their children at risk for mercury poisoning.

The report exposes that the FDA only tests about a dozen cans of Albacore tuna for mercury a year and doesn't ask to review the tuna industry's own tests. A consumer group's recent study indicates that as many as 22 million cans of tuna could have mercury levels above the FDA's action level, which would make them subject to recall.

Even though canned tuna is known to contain methyl mercury and is the third most popular item on grocery store shelves after sugar and coffee, it isn't listed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in its current consumer advisory.

"We know there are people who are eating more canned tuna than is considered safe," says NOW's senior Washington correspondent Roberta Baskin. "It's important that people get the information they need to assess the risk. But the FDA has, so far, been studying the mercury in tuna problem and lagging behind other governmental agencies on putting out clear advice about it."

A startling fact revealed in the broadcast is that the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) mercury guidelines are much stricter than the FDA's. According to the EPA's standard, a 45-pound child eating just one six ounce can of white chunk Albacore tuna per week risks ingesting almost four times more mercury than is considered safe.

The FDA, NOW reports, hasn't added tuna to its advisory because, the agency says, it doesn't want to scare consumers away from an affordable food with widely acknowledged health benefits. But last month, the World Health Organization and the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization cut in half its recommendation on how much mercury people can safely consume in their food. Reluctant to wait for the FDA to toughen their warnings, ten states have issued their own advisories on mercury levels in canned tuna: California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Washington, Wisconsin, and Vermont.