November 26, 2013 — A study of sushi eaters in New Jersey shows just how much sushi people are eating (and who's eating it) — as well as which kinds of sushi may expose people to the highest levels of methylmercury.
Researchers from Rutgers University and the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School examined sushi consumption among 1,289 people who lived in a New Jersey university community, as well as levels of mercury among samples of sushi taken from stores and supermarkets in New Jersey, New York City and Chicago. Of the people surveyed in the study, 92 percent said they ate fish, consuming an average of five fish or sushi meals each month. Seventy-seven percent of the respondents said they ate sushi, averaging 3.27 sushi meals a month. The amount of fish in pieces of sushi consumed by the study participants ranged from 5 to 25 grams.
Among the findings of the Journal of Risk Research study:
– Caucasians and Asians (particularly East Asians, compared with South Asians) reported eating the most sushi. Some people surveyed in the study reported eating more than 40 pieces of sushi a month, and eight of the people in the study said they ate fish or sushi at least once a day.
– The top 10 percent of sushi-eaters exceeded the Center for Disease Control Minimal Risk Level and the WHO Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake for methylmercury consumption. (People in this group ate sushi for an average of 30 to 60 meals each month.)
– The type of sushi with the highest average levels of methylmercury was tuna sashimi (with about 0.61 parts per million of methylmercury).
– Levels of mercury varied between sushi samples, "with some levels as high as 2.0 ppm [parts per million], which makes exposure to mercury from consumption of sushi (or sashimi) less predictable."
Read the full story at the Huffington Post