PSA: Mercury – It’s in the fish

Jan 2 2013 James Dau 2 Comments

Mercury has found its way not only into our households, but also into our aquatic environment, according to this public service announcement from the Michigan Department of Community Health.

“A person’s susceptibility to being harmed by the mercury in fish depends on their age, current health status, genetics, and chemical exposure history,” said Christina Bush, a health department toxicologist. “Given this complex set of factors, it is not known how much mercury it would take to harm any given individual. MDCH issues Fish Consumption Guidelines to help people choose fish that are low in mercury and safer for consumption by everyone, including pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and young children.”

The state hosts a website where these guidelines are available.

Additional information on the hazards of mercury, as well as its safe disposal, can be found at the health department’s mercury website.

The full series of health department mercury PSAs can be found here.

2 Comments »

Anonymous said:

While it is useful for the department to post in one communication links to several sites with information on mercury toxicity, its implication that there may be some level of exposure below which no harm occurs is not helpful. Mercury is a neurotoxic substance. Individual conditions may affect the seriousness of an exposure but there is no level at which it can be proven that there is “no harm”.

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