AN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) -- New research on mercury levels in fish show that current federal limits may be too high for consumers' safety - and that the limits were set based on decades-old data.
ConsumerWatch tested sushi and supermarket fish and found several samples of high-end fish like tuna, salmon, swordfish contained above average levels of mercury and in some cases more than 1 part per million. That is the legal level set by the FDA. But Bay Area physician Dr. Jane Hightower says it's not set high enough. "It's not protective, especially for people who enjoy to eat fish more than twice a week," said Hightower, a general practioner who's seen a number of mercury poisoning cases at San Francisco's California Pacific Medical Center. Hightower makes the case for reducing the current limit in a new book titled Diagnosis: Mercury. The FDA level of 1 part per million is twice the level allowed in Japan, Europe, and Canada, so Dr. Hightower did some digging to find out where that number came from. Her search led her to Iraq and a mass mercury poisoning. In the early 1970s 10,000 citizens died and 100,000 were brain damaged after eating tainted grain. Saddam Hussein's regime kept the incident quiet and there was speculation he ordered the poisoning. But afterwards, US government researchers collected data from the victims to determine how much mercury is safe in our food. Dr. Hightower interviewed the Iraqi scientist who gave US researchers the data. "The man who gave them all the data was also the man in charge of the poisoning. I asked him if he would use the data coming out of Iraq in the scientific reports...if he would use that data to tell his daughter how much mercury was safe to consume during her pregnancy and he immediately said, 'No way,'" she recalled. http://cbs5.com/consumer/fda.mercury.fish.2.836990.html I respect Dr Hightower very much. But I don't buy that Saddam ordered the poisoning. The contaminated grain came from Mexico. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "World-thread" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/world-thread?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
