Fishy Advice: The Politics of Methylmercury in Fish and Mercury Emissions

The White Paper:

JS. Szwarc. The Competitive Enterprise Institute. 2004. http://www.cei.org/gencon/025,04330.cfm

Review This White Paper’s Executive Summary:
http://www.cei.org/gencon/025,04330.cfm

The Purpose of this White Paper:
This author discusses whether she believes that women of childbearing age and/or their children are at risk from methylmercury because they eat certain types and certain amounts of fish.

Some Background, Methods, Results, Caveats, and Other Select Points:

• This is not a peer-reviewed, scientific paper.
• This white paper was first publicly distributed in 2004.
• This author claims there is no evidence that the methylmercury levels in the fish eaten by Americans are any cause for any health concerns. This author states that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that U.S. women of childbearing age are well below methylmercury exposure levels believed to cause harm to themselves and/or their children.
• This author believes that U.S. pregnant women not eating fish will possibly harm many hundreds of thousands of adults – as well as millions of expectant mothers and their children - because of the well-recognized, health benefits from eating a diet rich in fish and seafood.
• This author restates that methylmercury in fish is not the same as mercury in emissions released into the environment (air and/or water).
• This author believes that certain evidence indicates to this author that further reductions in U.S. mercury emissions will not have a noticeable affect on methylmercury exposure for Americans – and it won’t improve U.S. public health either.
• This author believes that it is a sad fact that the general U.S. public is being essentially terrorized about what this author believes is perfectly safe and nourishing fish. The author believes that this terrorization is driven solely by politics – and that concern about public health and/or scientific research is not involved here.

A Bottom Line:
This author believes that consumers are losing here because the politics of methylmercury in fish / seafood is overpowering and defeating the peer-reviewed science - and/or proper risk assessments - in this highly visible and very contentious methylmercury in fish / seafood ongoing public health debate.

Find This White Paper for Your Review
Fishy Advice: The Politics of Methylmercury in Fish and Mercury Emissions. http://www.cei.org/gencon/025,04330.cfm