“New Hampshire has issued a protective warning about mercury in fish -- the problem is that not enough people know about it,” said Melissa Bernardin, Mercury Outreach Coordinator at Clean Water Action, a nonprofit organization in Portsmouth. “The state health department needs to take stronger action to inform consumers, and the best way to get the information out is to require warnings to be posted where people buy fish.”
Across the six states, close to 1400 New Englanders were asked three questions about their knowledge of government advisories about mercury contamination of fish.
While fish provides a good source of protein and is often healthy for the brain and heart, certain kinds accumulate high levels of mercury, a toxin known to attack the brain and nervous system in growing children. Methylmercury—the organic form mercury assumes in fish—can also threaten adult health.
Jane Meneghin of North Hampton, NH was recently diagnosed with mercury poisoning. While she is angered that to avoid mercury exposure she was advised to limit her fish intake -- which used to include farm-raised salmon, haddock, sole, and an occasional swordfish meal -- she supports the campaign's call for mandatory postings of the fish advisory. However, she also thinks long term solutions to mercury pollution are needed.
“Should we have to be deprived of a perfectly healthful source of protein, not to mention the delicious taste of fish?” she asked. “No. There is a better solution and that is getting our state and federal representatives to shape up and do something about the pollution of this country's waterways.”
In New Hampshire, Clean Water Action surveyed over 200 people in three communities and found that more people were generally aware of the advisories, but that significant percentages were still uninformed.
The campaign's survey results are generally consistent with the findings of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scientists that between 30% and 50% of women of childbearing age are not aware of exposure risks to mercury through eating fish. Currently, the FDA advises sensitive populations to limit commercially caught fish consumption to 12 ounces per week while the EPA advises limiting consumption of recreationally-caught fish for these populations to 6 ounces per week for adults and 2 ounces per week for children.
Clean Water Action asked 75 stores and restaurants in NH to post a mercury fish advisory. Portsmouth Health Food Store agreed to post the advisory near their canned and frozen fish, drawing the applause of the Zero Mercury Campaign. Other stores and restaurants throughout the region have also taken this initiative, including the national supermarket chain, Wild Oats.
Most mercury pollution comes from the burning of fossil fuels in coal-fired power plants, disposal of mercury-containing products in incinerators and landfills, mineral mining operations, industrial uses like chlorine production, and releases from dental offices. Mercury levels in the environment have increased 3-5 fold in the past century as a result of human activities and are reaching threshold levels that threaten human health and environmental security, as well as the future of the global fishing industry.
Since 1996, fish has surpassed beef and poultry as the main source of protein for billions of people in the world. A single serving of mercury-contaminated fish could potentially cause permanent damage to a child's developing nervous system. Canned tuna is consumed in 90 percent of American households and accounts for 25-35 percent of all fish consumption in the U.S.