USA:Mercury in EVERY Fish Tested From Hundreds of Streams, Rivers

[MustavaMond]

Mercury found in every U.S. fish tested -- chicagotribune.com

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Dina Cappiello, Associated Press
August 20, 2009

WASHINGTON - -- A federal study of mercury contamination released Wednesday found the toxic substance in every fish tested at nearly 300 streams across the country, a finding that underscores how widespread mercury pollution has become.

From 1998 to 2005, scientists collected and tested more than a thousand fish from 291 streams nationwide.

While all fish had traces of mercury contamination, only about a quarter had levels exceeding what the Environmental Protection Agency says is safe for people eating average amounts of fish.

"This science sends a clear message that our country must continue to confront pollution," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement.

Mercury can damage the nervous system and cause learning disabilities in developing fetuses and young children. The main source of the mercury, according to the researchers, is emissions from coal-fired power plants. The mercury rains down into waterways where natural processes convert it into methylmercury -- a form that allows the toxin to wind its way up the food chain into fish.

Some of the highest levels in fish were detected in the remote blackwater streams along the coasts of the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida and Louisiana where surrounding forests and wetlands help in the conversion.

Mercury was also detected in high concentrations in Western streams that drain areas mined for mercury and gold.

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[Dan]

only about a quarter had levels exceeding what the Environmental Protection Agency says is safe for people eating average amounts of fish.

Interesting use of the word 'only'. 25% seems like a fucking horrendous number to me.

[crazy dog]

Bit of a worry for fish eaters as mercury is an accumulative poison.

[blackgang]

remote blackwater streams along the coasts of the Carolinas, Georgia,

Damn Musty, you seem to have your mind on to many conspiracy theory's at one time.
But just eat the young fish from high country fish and eat no long lived fish such as shark and sturgeons and stay off the expensive caviar and you will be OK as more brain damage will not really hurt you to much more.

[slackula]

as more brain damage will not really hurt you to much more.

lol wut?

[crippen]

Is this the same stuff I,and the rest of my mates,used to play with,have loose in our pockets,blow across the table ect. ect. ect. How are we all still alive,and reasonably sane???Bit of tin hat in all this I think.

[blackgang]

Shit has always been around as far as I know,
My Mothers grandfather had a cinnabar mine and smelted a flask every day or so, and when I was a kid and did a little prospecting we would sometimes pan out a pan and come up with an amalgam ball of gold and quick.
we were careful when cooking the amalgam and cut a big spud in half and put amalgam in a hole in the spud and that down on a tin pan and cooked it off and stayed upwind of the stuff and never seemed to have hurt anyone I know.

[Dan]

The effects of mercury poisoning are well established.