Mercury Found in All Fish Tested in the West

[Karlin]

The extent of the neurotoxin surprises Oregon scientists, who suspect the air is the source:
"I was surprised that the mercury was everywhere and in measurable amounts"
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/012407EA.shtml

Gee, I have been avoiding products comging from China because they all have a high mercury and lead content, just from the air and so on where they are manufactured. Things like COFFEE MUGS are bad, as they will leach into your drink and body. [and have you found a coffee mug NOT made in china lately? - I try, and cannot find them]

Now we know that this is true in North America too, likely not as bad as in China. They say it is 'from the air', in that air pollution has put mercury there. What industrial operation here does more of that than any other? - our enemy the coal-fired power plants. I say "Shut em down" if they cannot stop the mercury and CO2.

Mercury - a neurotoxin - might be responsible for much of the modern plague of early dementia, immune disorders, and chronic pain conditions.

 

[MikeyDB]

Couldn't agree more with your hypothesis...

Particulate matter suspended in the air recombine with other toxins and particles to form complex chains of elements that have deleterious effects on anything that breathes...

If you think suspended particulate matter is new...have you ever wondered why rainclouds are dark?

 

[hermanntrude]

people get over-excited about mercury. I knew a man who kept it in his pocket, in the metallic form.

even so, Elements behave differently when compounded. Mercury is very rarely found in the metallic form as it's quite reactive, and it's much more dangerous as a metal than as anything else. a good example of this kind of transformation is fluorine. Fluorine in its elemental form is REALLY nasty. breathe it in and you'd be in a really bad way, probably dead. BUT sodium fluoride, and fluoride salts of other kinds, are rather good for your teeth... slightly toxic but nothing to worry about.

mercury is nasty but mercury in a mug couldn't leak out fast enough to harm you, and it'd be in the wrong form anyway.

 

[MikeyDB]

Tell that to the mad Hatter...

 

[hermanntrude]

mad hatters had a very high exposure to a mercuric compound... i think it was mercuric sulphide but i can't be sure. anyway they had it all over them most days, so it's not surprising they had some bad effects. it's not the same drinking out of a mug, which is sealed by a glaze and contains tiny amounts of mercury-containing salts

 

[L Gilbert]

people get over-excited about mercury. I knew a man who kept it in his pocket, in the metallic form.

even so, Elements behave differently when compounded. Mercury is very rarely found in the metallic form as it's quite reactive, and it's much more dangerous as a metal than as anything else. a good example of this kind of transformation is fluorine. Fluorine in its elemental form is REALLY nasty. breathe it in and you'd be in a really bad way, probably dead. BUT sodium fluoride, and fluoride salts of other kinds, are rather good for your teeth... slightly toxic but nothing to worry about.

mercury is nasty but mercury in a mug couldn't leak out fast enough to harm you, and it'd be in the wrong form anyway.

Actually sodium is pretty dangerous as well. It may explode upon contact with water (sweat, rain, etc.)
Fluorine is an accumulative poison. (Accumulative means it will collect and the body doesn't rid itself of it very fast). A lot of dentists have ceased using it on their patients.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=5762

 

[hermanntrude]

yes sodium is another extreme example. potassium (potassium chloride is used in low-sodium salt), iodine (used as an antiseptic but in pure form can be very harmful to the lungs if heated slightly), hydrogen (the major part of water, extremely explosive and flammable), oxygen (neccessary for life but causes things to become explosive), chlorine (part of salt, deadly as a gas), the list goes on. My point is that something that seems harmful can be perfectly safe in another form.

 

[karrie]

people get over-excited about mercury. I knew a man who kept it in his pocket, in the metallic form.

even so, Elements behave differently when compounded. Mercury is very rarely found in the metallic form as it's quite reactive, and it's much more dangerous as a metal than as anything else. a good example of this kind of transformation is fluorine. Fluorine in its elemental form is REALLY nasty. breathe it in and you'd be in a really bad way, probably dead. BUT sodium fluoride, and fluoride salts of other kinds, are rather good for your teeth... slightly toxic but nothing to worry about.

mercury is nasty but mercury in a mug couldn't leak out fast enough to harm you, and it'd be in the wrong form anyway.

I was surprised to learn that a lot of mercury contamination in fish comes from the ground itself, not from industry. Dam formation is especially bad, creating mercury contamination for up to 30 years if the ground it floods contains enough mercury. Any area with soft porous rock is vulnerable to contamination of its fish as rivers slowly change direction and wash over new rocks, releasing mercury. It had simply never occurred to me before.

 

[Tonington]

Any toxin that exists in the food chain is bound to end up in higher concentrations as you go up the food chain. It's a simple principle called bio-accumulation. Just another reason we shouldn't be so complacent about the toxic emissions from our manufacturing and agricultural industries.

 

[L Gilbert]

Any toxin that exists in the food chain is bound to end up in higher concentrations as you go up the food chain. It's a simple principle called bio-accumulation. Just another reason we shouldn't be so complacent about the toxic emissions from our manufacturing and agricultural industries.

Exactly. Toxins have been causing changes in the critters at the tops of food chains for quite a while. Climate is a factor in behavior, too. Orca, for instance, have been tested and found to contain pretty high concentrations of toxins.

 

[hermanntrude]

are they higher now than they used to be?

it's logical that toxins have always existed in higher concentrations in predators.

an aside: did you know hedgehogs have a weird resistance to toxic chemicals? they LIKE to eat cigarette butts, and creosote, for instance

 

[Tonington]

Mmm, another good example would be the DDT that ends up in raptors.

 

[hermanntrude]

yes, DDT was a mistake. I believe it's a banned substance now though eh? it'll hang around for a few hundred years i spose but we've learned a lesson

 

[Tonington]

Funny thing though, I remember hearing recently of some scientists who were considering it's use again, I can't remember what for, or why they thought it could be safely used. I guess I'll have to do some poking around.

 

[L Gilbert]

It's very effective against critters that carry horrid diseases. They were thinking about using it psecifically after tsunamis and floods to keep bad bugs at bay.

 

[TenPenny]

Funny thing though, I remember hearing recently of some scientists who were considering it's use again, I can't remember what for, or why they thought it could be safely used. I guess I'll have to do some poking around.

Judicious use of DDT in Africa could save thousands of lives by killing mosquitoes that carry a variety of diseases. But I mean judicious use, not indiscriminate. Unfortunately, it's highly unlikely that there will ever be a reasoned discussion of this.

 

[RomSpaceKnight]

"We found a relatively low concentration of mercury across a broad expanse," said Spencer Peterson, a research ecologist with the EPA in Corvallis. "I think the beneficial effects of eating fish outweigh the hazard potential."

Most of the fish tested in this article are not typical food fish. More local caught by non-commercial anglers. Inland waters and rivers have had restrictions on eating for years. That said if I had a prenant wife or small child I would follow restrictions on eating. As a 43 year old male I think the health benefits outweigh the negatives. After a heart attack in April the docs put me on a low fat no salt added diet. Fish makes up the majority of my diet. That and skinless chicken. Not inclined to go vegan.