The way it boosts neural development in babies and protects the hearts and minds of adults, fish could be considered a health food. Yet the methylmercury pollution that taints fish worldwide can erase these advantages and even trigger profound mental and cardiovascular harm. Several new papers now suggest strategies by which American diners can negotiate the mercury minefield to tap dietary benefits in fish.
Their authors also call for reform of federal guidelines that can confuse consumers on mercury risks from fish.
Mercury is a global pollutant. Some comes from local industrial sources, such as smelters or coal-fired power plants. Some falls out of the atmosphere from distant polluters. There are natural sources, such as erupting volcanoes. And some just remains as a pervasive legacy of historical releases.
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