[nelie]

Mercury-tainted fish found widely in U.S. streams
Wed Aug 19, 2009 8:11pm EDT

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Scientists have detected mercury contamination in every one of hundreds of fish sampled from 291 freshwater streams, according to a U.S. government study released on Wednesday.

More than a quarter of those fish contained concentrations of mercury exceeding levels set by the Environmental Protection Agency for the protection of people who eat average amounts of fish, the U.S. Geological Survey report said.

More than two-thirds exceeded the EPA-set level of concern for fish-eating mammals.

"This study shows just how widespread mercury pollution has become in our air, watersheds, and many of our fish in freshwater streams," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement. The USGS is part of the Interior Department.

The rest of the article is available here:
http://www.reuters.com/article/domes...57J01720090820

[HotWings]

I am really glad I don't like fish. Mercury is bad, and I've read somewhere that it doesn't leave your body and can affect you years down the road. I never feed my kids fish either - if they want to they can eat it when they are older! Now I'm glad I do that!

Thanks for the article

[geoblewis]

I love fish, but have switched to wild-caught ocean fish of smaller sizes, like Portuguese sardines and Pacific sole, around three times/week. Occasionally I still eat wild Alaskan salmon, like once a month. My sons love tuna, so I limit them to a tongol tuna once a week. It's a tuna with much lower mercury levels.

I've been reading lately about natural chelation, a process for removing mercury and other toxins from our bodies. I read that cilantro is an excellent natural chelating food. Another natural chelation agent is linoleic acid, which can be found in sunflower seeds and olive oil, as well as other similar foods.

I always get the Portuguese sardines packed in olive oil from Trader Joes, so I get the good nutrition from both the fish and the olive oil. And I can make a cilantro pesto to eat with the sardines on whole grain toast.

I just made myself hungry!

[Babette]

That should be shocking - but nothing surprises me anymore. Meanwhile the "specialists" out there keep recommending fish ... but don't mention this!

[noelf]

kind of scary... it feels like every food has something bad in it though...