Mercury poses dangerous health risks, especially to children and the unborn fetuses of pregnant women. The essence of what I have copied below (I bolded the important parts) are that the way we can use it as an educational tool is that the greatest threat it poses is to children. That of course will have a large impact in the same way that society views children as victims of tobacco. There is also a website, http://www.gotmercury.org/
, which let's you calculate the amount of mercury you're getting. In one can of tuna, a 147 pound person gets 115% of his weekly allotment. (Yes I entered my own weight). Anyway, the site also discusses the excessive levels of mercury in swordfish and canned tuna. Didn't someone just mention something about tuna and greenpeace? Read the stuff below and I'll do more research.
Methylmercury Methyl mercury effects
For fetuses, infants, and children, the primary health effect of methylmercury is impaired neurological development. Methylmercury exposure in the womb, which can result from a mother's consumption of fish and shellfish that contain methylmercury, can adversely affect a baby's growing brain and nervous system. Impacts on cognitive thinking, memory, attention, language, and fine motor and visual spatial skills have been seen in children exposed to methylmercury in the womb. Recent human biological monitoring by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1999 and 2000 (PDF) (3 pp., 42 KB, About PDF) shows that most people have blood mercury levels below a level associated with possible health effects. More recent data from the CDC support this general finding.
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Mayo Clinic. (2007, Nov 21). Fish FAQ: The merits and hazards of eating fish
Retrieved Nov 21, 2007, from the World Wide Web:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/food-and-nutrition/NU00292