Great news! Townhall.com Encourages fundies to get Mercury poisoning!

[Ian David]

Don't Get Hooked On Green Groups' Mercury Hype.

Widespread public fear of fish is the latest consequence of a mainstream media that’s often more in touch with social activism than sound science. Newspaper and TV reporters have begun to claim that “tainted” fish with “unsafe” levels of mercury is routinely sold to an unwitting public. This would be Pulitzer-Prize stuff -- except that it’s not true. And www.FishScam.com, a new website from the nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom, blows the lid off these fish fears.


Bad news about the healthfulness of eating fish is great news for environmental activists at the Environmental Working Group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Oceana, and over a dozen other groups that see fish as a platform for fighting eco-battles and raising money.


Groups like these have cynically twisted the meaning of government guidelines. They’ve polluted the airwaves with wild anti-fish tales, and they’ve raked in millions of dollars. The mercury-in-fish scare has already appeared in the fundraising letters of over a dozen green groups.


FishScam.com puts fishy activist campaigns in their proper context. In addition to being needlessly frightened about mercury, Americans have seen multi-million-dollar boycotts of Atlantic swordfish and Chilean sea bass. And radical animal rights groups -- including at least one that masquerades as a medical and nutrition charity -- are so morally opposed to the idea of eating fish that they'll say anything to turn the public into vegetarians.


How ridiculous is the current public panic over mercury in fish? As FishScam.com documents, the amount of mercury in grocery-store and restaurant fish is inconsequential to human health. How so? The Food and Drug Administration’s “Action Level for mercury in fish has a built-in safety margin of 1,000 percent. This means that a sample of fish would have to have ten times the FDA's recommended mercury limit before it might be a cause for concern.

Link to whacked-out fundie hatesite deliberately omited.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Link, you just can't trust the EPA.... they know NOTHING.

Did any of these morans finish school??? WTF is wrong with these mindless MORANS????

1: Chemosphere. 2005 Dec;61(8):1069-73. Related Articles, Links

Distribution and toxicity of mercury in rats after oral administration of mercury-contaminated whale red meat marketed for human consumption.

Endo T, Hotta Y, Haraguchi K, Sakata M.

Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, 1757 Ishikari-Tobetsu, Hokkaido 061-0293, Japan. [e-mail]

Toothed-whales and dolphins have been hunted for human consumption in Japan, and their muscles (red meats) are highly contaminated with mercury (Hg). We investigated the distribution and toxicity of Hg in rats after oral administration of Hg-contaminated whale red meat marketed for human consumption in Japan. Rats were orally administered the red meat homogenate for seven consecutive days (0.5 g red meat/kg-bw/day). The red meat administered to rats contained 81microg/g of total mercury (T-Hg) and 13.4 microg/g of methyl mercury (M-Hg). This dose corresponds to the human consumption of 210 g red meat/60 kg-bw/week, exceeding by about 29 times the provisional tolerable weekly intake of M-Hg at 1.6 microg/kg-bw/week set by JECFA . Twenty-four hours after the last administration, the distribution of T-Hg in rat organs and biochemical parameters in serum were analyzed. The administration of red meat significantly elevated T-Hg concentrations in the liver, kidney, erythrocytes, cerebral cortex and medulla oblongata from the control levels but did not elevate the T-Hg concentration in serum, showing the typical distribution pattern of M-Hg, not of inorganic Hg. The administration slightly but significantly increased GTP activity and P concentration and decreased BUN concentration in serum, although no abnormalities were observed in rat body weight gain and movement during the 7 days. The occasional consumption of red meat from small cetaceans, therefore, could pose a health problem for not only pregnant women but also for the general population.


http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/fishadvice/advice.html

Frequently Asked Questions about Mercury in Fish and Shellfish:
What is mercury and methylmercury?
I'm a woman who could have children but I'm not pregnant - so why should I be concerned about methylmercury?
Is there methylmercury in all fish and shellfish?
I don't see the fish I eat in the advisory. What should I do?
What about fish sticks and fast food sandwiches?
The advice about canned tuna is in the advisory, but what's the advice about tuna steaks?
What if I eat more than the recommended amount of fish and shellfish in a week?
Where do I get information about the safety of fish caught recreationally by family or friends?
Further information
Background information about the advisory

[MrModerate]

2. Actually, just from casual observation . . .

It seems they may ALREADY be suffering from heavy metal poisoning (damaged cognitive functioning, neurological disorders, high incidence of really icky birth defects, etc., etc.)

I guess it could be from lead-based paint, though.

[Ian David]

3. My guess is it's all attributable to Divine Retribution

Or perhaps Methamphetamines.

[Dr.Phool]

5. Or quite possibly severe inbreeding!

:evilgrin:

[MrModerate]

6. That would explain the "no opposable thumb" observation . . . n/t

[Celebration]

4. What a bizarre stance

Pro mercury in fish and the atmosphere. Yes, I agree--already mercury damaged or a coal plant executive with stock options. I feel sorry for the fishermen. Not their fault. I guess they want to put mercury back into vaccines as well, just to help nudge the average IQ level down a little more?