100 Percent of Fish in U.S. Streams Contaminated with Mercury

[Truth2Tell]

http://www.naturalnews.com/028284_fish_mercury.html

(NaturalNews) In a new study conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), every single fish tested from 291 freshwater streams across the United States was found to be contaminated with mercury.

"This study shows just how widespread mercury pollution has become in our air, watersheds and many of our fish in freshwater streams," said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that builds up in the food chain at ever higher concentrations in predators such as large fish and humans. It is especially damaging to the developing nervous systems of fetuses and children, but can have severe effects on adults, as well. The pollutant enters the environment almost wholly as atmospheric emissions from industrial processes, primarily the burning of coal for electricity. It then spreads across the plant and settles back to the surface, eventually concentrating in rivers, lakes and oceans, where it enters the aquatic food chain.

The number one cause of human mercury poisoning in the United States is the consumption of fish and shellfish.

http://www.naturalnews.com/028284_fish_mercury.html">Continued...


Just a reminder: Coal Kills!

[BeFree]

1. Thanks for all the fish?

May soon be "Keep yer damn fish to yourself you damned idiots."

Of course, the same people who tell us nukes are cool, are the same who told us air pollution from their smokestacks was nothing to worry about.

We are idiots, weren't we?

[Bozita]

2. A suit was filed in LA this week over the presence of PCBs in Omega-3 fish oil pills

[azul]

24. But the jury cannot understand the details?

Justice, unpoetic?

[Bozita]

37. link with details here ...

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/773977--lawsuit-claims-omega-3-supplements-contain-industrial-chemicals?bn=1

Lawsuit claims Omega-3 supplements contain industrial chemicals
Published On Tue Mar 02 2010
Joanna Smith
Ottawa Bureau


OTTAWA—A California lawsuit aims to push companies that make and sell fish oil supplements to be more upfront about their ingredients, claiming testing showed some brands contain high levels of industrial chemicals.

The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court on Tuesday, alleges six U.S. manufacturers and two drugstore companies failed to warn the public that products made from fish or shark oil – long toted as a source of Omega-3 fatty acids – contained polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) compounds.

“Consumers who want the health benefits of fish oil shouldn’t also have to take the health risks of an extremely toxic man-made chemical,” lawyer David Roe said in a statement.

The lawsuit is based on California law that requires companies to warn consumers about exposure to chemicals that are known to cause cancer or reproductive harm.

The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, more commonly referred to as Proposition 65, sets limits for safe human consumption of PCB compounds.

The eight makers and sellers named in the lawsuit are connected to products that one of the plaintiffs, non-profit organization Mateel Justice Foundation, showed to have PCB contamination above those limits when tested in a laboratory.

more...

[marginlized]

3. Sushi anyone?

A Great addendum on mercury poisoning can be found in "The Cove". There is no safe tuna.

[Echo In Light]

4. Damn

[old mark]

5. My youngest brother worked for an environmental testing company 25 years ago.

One Friday, when he told them he planned to spend his long holiday weekend fishing, they were horrified,
"You don't really EAT THEM, do you?" He did, at least till then.....

25 years ago.

mark

[Winterblues]

6. IMO people that do not eat fish are not nearly as healthy as they could and should be..

Asian people's primary diet is fish and they are some of the healthiest people on earth.

[Tesha]

7. This report doesn't impress me.

At a sufficient sensitivity, *WE* are doubtless all contaminated
by mercury as well.

Tesha

[quaker bill]

12. Actually

we are contaminated well above "sufficient sensitivity". Lab Detection limits for mercury are quite low and have been for 20+ years.

Last time I worked in a lab, we could get good recoveries down to about 0.2 PPB, by cold vapor atomic absorption spectroscopy. I understand that some more advanced methods can now reach to 0.02 PPB.

[Tesha]

17. Thanks!

I gotta admit it: when you're talking about 20 parts per trillion,
my mind boggles!

Tesha

[azul]

25. And please tell us how many atoms of Hg then in a glass of water?

Approx 10 to the 24th number of atoms in a glass of water. (H2O 1 mole= 18g= 6.02x 10 to 23rd molecules)

Sensitivity is two per 10 to the 10th power, or detecting 2 mercury atoms in of 10 to the 10th molecules of water.

So for every glass of water with 0.2ppb, there are approx 2 x 10 to the 14th numbers of mercury atoms.

(10 to 24th minus 10 to the 10th= 100,000,000,000,000.)

There could still be up to 10 trillion atoms of mercury in the glass of water and it would be undetectable.

[quaker bill]

32. It is a mass balance thingy

We don't pass mercury very efficiently, so it tends to accumulate in your tissues over time. If you consume less than the tiny amount you can excrete, you probably have no problem. If you consume more, you will eventually develop problems, given you live long enough.

The fact that a thing is not detected, does not mean it is absent, but it also does not mean that it is present, it just means we don't know.

I am pretty sure that there is a way, using cation exchange resins, that one could concentrate a sample sufficiently to extend the range of detection an order of magnitude or two. There are thermodynamic limits to this sort of thing, and error begins to expand as you go.

A typical sample for an Graphite Furnace-Argon AA machine for most metals is about 0.1 ml (roughly two drops). The cold vapor mercury test uses a much larger sample, but it is still quite small. ICP testing is probably more sensitive, but still has limits.

[Truth2Tell]

18. Maybe *THAT* should concern you.

Even if it's not yet at toxic levels, mercury levels trending upward across our entire macro-ecosystem - including in humans - doesn't bode well IMO.

[Tesha]

28. Nahhh. We've made such tremendous strides against lead pollution...

...in the last few decades that even if mercury
levels are rising slightly, the total load of toxic
heavy metals is substantially reduced,

Eliminating lead from gasoline was a huge, huge
step forward. A smaller step, but still meaningful,
is the steady elimation of lead from the pipe,
brasses, and solders uses in plumbing. And now
lead is being phased out of electronic solders so
there's less of that in the waste stream.

Is there good evidence that mercury loads are
increasing? Most commercial uses of mercury
are being phased-down as well: mercury switches,
mercury relays, mercury thermometers, mercury
anti-fungals and the like are mostly all gone. Fluor-
escent lamps still contain mercury, but far less than
they used to. Fewer dental amalgam fillings are used.

Sure, coal powered power plants are still a problem,
but in our part of the world, how many new coal plants
are being built?

No, I'm sorry, but I can't get all that worked-up about
mercury pollution.

Tesha

[Truth2Tell]

29. How many new coal plants are being built?

Well, about 60 are moving forward, and over 200 have have been proposed. It's still the cornerstone of expanding energy production in the US and is growing significantly:



Also, here's a nifty interactive map of 225 proposed coal plant locations currently in play, courtesy of the Sierra Club. It includes info on the status of project challenges, and contacts for local groups working to oppose the plants:

http://www.sierraclub.org/maps/coal.asp

Bottom line is Mercury (not to mention CO2) is a growing problem, not a declining problem. And we are not even beginning to reverse it, despite eliminating thermometer mercury use, etc. That's like touting a thimbleful of water removed from a leaking sinking ship.

[Tesha]

30. Thanks. So in my part of the world, *NO* new coal plants are being built.

Now address my point regarding the removal of lead from the
environment. And, BTW, don't forget the removal of lead paint,
a major source of childhood exposure to toxic heavy metals.

Tesha

[Truth2Tell]

35. I'm having trouble addressing your points

because I'm not exactly clear what they are.

That if no new plants are being built in NH then who gives a shit about anywhere else? Is that one of your points?

Or that as long as less lead is being released into the ecosystem that somehow negates the rapidly (relative to history) rising levels of other various toxins across the board? Is that another of your points?

:shrug:

[Tesha]

36. Please don't pretend not to understand.

With regard to lead versus mercury, yes, that's exactly
my point. (And don't try now to make this debate include
*ALL* environmental toxins; this entire thread is about
mercury.) All heavy metals have similar toxicological and
mercury and lead are, in this regard, *VERY* similar.

So yes, the great strides we've made against lead in the
environment are helpful in decreasing my level of worrying
about mercury.

With regard to where new coal plants are being built: You'll
notice that it's not just NH where they're not being built; it's
the entire Northeast! That doesn't mean we're off the hook,
of course, because all the emissions from all that coal being
burned by Republicans in the Midwest eventually blows into
our region, but it again means that I'm more sanguine than
I might otherwise be.

And the there's the question I originally raised: as our ability
to detect mercury becomes *ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE* better,
of course it's being detected everywhere, because at a sufficient
level of sensitivity, *EVERYTHING* will be detectable *EVERYWHERE*.

Tesha

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. 100% of fish in U.S. streams fail to complete the 12th grade.

talk about meaningless numbers.

[Uncle Joe]

9. Correction to your title.

"100 Percent of Fish in U.S. Streams Found Contaminated with Mercury."

Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Truth2Tell.

[LiberalEsto]

10. Partly thanks to "clean" coal

Clean coal is an oxymoron

[Iggo]

11. 100%? That's almost all of them! (n/t)

[flvegan]

13. 100% of vegans/vegetarians safe from problem.

[Truth2Tell]

19. Only narrowly.

If this is just a harbinger of where our entire global living system is headed - and I think it is - then ultimately you are affected. We are all one - when we kill the earth we kill ourselves. :)

[flvegan]

20. I

was making a subtle hint that maybe we should walk a bit more softly on this planet we call home.

[quaker bill]

33. Safe?

from something that falls from the sky in rainwater? Vegans are only safe from being contaminated by eating fish, because they pass on it. You can't possibly be thinking this is the only pathway to contamination, right?

[flvegan]

34. No, because I'm not an idiot.

Reread my post in context of the OP, please.

[quaker bill]

14. Some experience

None of this is actually news. There have been comsumption advisories on freshwater fish, particularly top predators, for nearly 20 years. The only real news is that the contamination is worse and more widespread. There are now consumption advisories on some salt water fish as well.

General recommendations are to consume these fish no more than once a month.

I used to do this sort of stuff in a lab for a living. The contamination is quite real, increasing in amount and area, and is solidly related to coal burning power plants. These plants also belch radionucleids, radon, radium, and strontium being most common.

[era veteran]

15. Cheap coal is sure expensive

[spanone]

16. ain't we sumpin'

[amborin]

21. recommend

[Kaleva]

22. On the bright side, only 9% of mecury is contaiminated by fish.

[applegrove]

23. And Omega 3 fish oil tablets contain PCBs. Does it ever end?

[cliffordu]

26. I rode my bicycle cross country a couple of years ago and

saw thousands of aa and aaa batteries on the side of the road....

The only thing nearly as plentiful was the roadkill - in the south it was astonishing.

[troubledamerican]

27. The country that cared for itself

[deaniac21]

31. Damn! Now I'm STARVING!

[XOKCowboy]

38. Another good reason for "catch and release"

OK I'm a fly fisherman with intense cabin fever.