as one of six siblings in a 50's Catholic family, i ate a lot of tuna fish: tuna sandwiches, tuna cassarole, tuna melts. no matter what kind of family you're from, i bet you did too. bet you've also fed a lot of it to your kids, i know we have. by now, however, you probably know that American's fish-of-choice, as Arianna Huffington calls it in her column today, is causing all of us to have elevated levels of mercury in our bloodstreams. this is particularly bad news for pregnant women, or women of childbearing age, and for children, since it acts as a neurotoxin affecting brain development and function in fetuses and small children. "A January 2003 report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that one in six women of childbearing age have mercury in their blood above the level that would pose a risk to a developing fetus." (Mercury Contamination in Fish, NRDC)
you've read this lately everywhere, i'm sure. what i haven't read is that it additionally may be to blame for infertility, blood-pressure and memory problems in adults, as well as a probable link to heart disease. it is, of course, not the tuna's fault that this is happening. the primary source of mercury pollution is emissions from coal-fired power plants, and right behind that as a source for poisoning Charlie comes the chemical industry. emissions occur in air, water and land. the element builds up in the larger fish, which eat the smaller fish, and then in you and me, when we make a salad with the larger fish.
2 comments:
I've had a beef with the food industry for a while now. Poor regulations exist in factory farming as well. Wish gov't would subsidize health, sustainable, and safe organic food production instead. It would be nice if the food that was MOST affordable was healthy, organic food, produced safely and humanely.
and, SIX siblings?! Whew. That's a big clan!
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