Mercury Contamination in Tuna

Diet and Nutrition
21

[quote]Sonny S wrote:
—There is a wide variety of foods you can eat without taking the “tuna risk.” Why would anyone want to ingest a known poisonous substance, whent they don’t have to? —

Isn’t it a bit sad or depressing that we are on a message board discussing how much tuna is safe to eat? A toxic pollutant has seriously contaminated our food chain and instead of doing something about it, we talk about switching to anchovies.

Instead of being upset and trying to cure the “disease” of mercury pollution, we cure the “symptom” by silently moving along to another foodstuff.

What needs to be done to improve this situation? I’m going to have to look into donating to groups that are fighting polution/polluters.[/quote]

Sonny S:

I like your attitude. Let me know what you come up with, I might join you in that.

22

If this sort of health risk worries you that much, I highly suggest you stay away from L.A., Chicago, Detroit and any other city with lots of cars, industry and other forms of mass pollution. Oh and don’t forget the paper mills in the South. That pretty flourescent green smoke is Sulphur Dioxide. I would be more worried about about breathing the air on Sunset Blvd. more that eating a Tuna salad.

23

There are so many contaminants in our food supply, if you only ingested pure food and drink, you wouldn’t even be able to drink a glass of water. Everyone is subject to some degree of contamination, even by simply breathing.

Just eat tuna in moderation. I believe the FDA recommends no more than one can a week, which is fine. Just use it occasionally for some variety when you get tired of yet another chicken breast. When I look at chicken and I groan, I reach for a rip n’ ready tuna pack.

Spend your time watching out for other things, like soy and soy by-products!

24

I’ll take my mercury poisoning over starvation.

At the very least, I’ll have a valid excuse for the orgies.

25

[quote]Judecca wrote:
I believe the FDA recommends no more than one can a week[/quote]

For children, and women who are pregnant or may become pregnant. There is notably no FDA recommendation for adult males to restrict their consumption. The recommendation made by the FDA is to scientifically guarantee that NOBODY ever suffers ANY effect at ALL from mercury, full-stop. It’s essentially a paranoid fantasy that maybe there could conceivably be hidden effects caused by tiny little molecular alterations in your biochemistry if you have this little smidgen of mercury in your system for ten minutes.

The whole mercury problem has been overgeneralised. There are certain types of mercury that create real risks, specifically inorganic methyl-mercury which can be metabolised into a form that effectively crosses the placental barrier and is a known mutagenic, but most mercury is just not a big deal. Inorganic methyl-mercury is now effectively unheard of in any real-world industry.

There are a lot of people walking around right now with a bunch of amalgam fillings in their heads, and they’re FINE. There are a lot of people like me whose grandfathers brought them bottles of mercury to play with when they were kids, and they’re FINE. You’re not going to die from eating tuna. This has been blown so far out of proportion, we OUGHT to be laughing at it.

26

I fell victim to too much tuna last summer. I was eating on average a small can a day, however in addition to the canned tuna I was also eating sushi about once a week, and tuna steaks on the grill about once a week. All of this fresh tuna in addition to the canned drove my levels up to twice the normal amount. I was toxic. I went to my doc who recommended a blood test, which yielded 2x the normal blood mercury levels. I was severely fatigued and my hair began falling out (not completely). I cut out all tuna from my diet (fresh, and canned) and my energy levels went back to normal, and my hair grew back.

And all the while, I thought I was eating healthy. Goes to show…everything in moderation.
I will try my best to answer any questions if you guys have any.

27

wow, thanks guys, i can see this is still a contraversial topic!

“I’m going to have to look into donating to groups that are fighting polution/polluters.”
hehe that would be PETA then?

seriously, moving to the countryside isnt such a bad idea, i was looking at cadavers’ lungs the other day and even healthy non-smokers’ lungs had ALL the lymph nodes readily identifiable as big black blobs of tar. it was a bit scary :confused:

28

If you are serious about donating to an organisation that does something more than throw tantrums look up some stuff on the Chemical and Engineering News trade journal website.I think it’s www.cnen.com. I’ll post something later too along these lines. Please avoid the lunatic fringe groups on this one. The C&EN is a legitimate, peer reviewed trade journal that actualy publishes the ongoing resaerch and results to questions without the hysterical hyperbole of the fringe groups.

29

These non-smokers lived in urban areas, am I reading that right? The fact they lived in or near cities caused them to have tar in their lungs?

“seriously, moving to the countryside isnt such a bad idea, i was looking at cadavers’ lungs the other day and even healthy non-smokers’ lungs had ALL the lymph nodes readily identifiable as big black blobs of tar. it was a bit scary :/”

30

MInd- yes please post something more about them.

And waht exactly do they DO besides research and publish?

I’ll look for more info on them when i have time, but for now tell me what you know.

THanks

31

[quote]
The whole mercury problem has been overgeneralised. There are certain types of mercury that create real risks, specifically inorganic methyl-mercury which can be metabolised into a form that effectively crosses the placental barrier and is a known mutagenic, but most mercury is just not a big deal. Inorganic methyl-mercury is now effectively unheard of in any real-world industry.

There are a lot of people walking around right now with a bunch of amalgam fillings in their heads, and they’re FINE. There are a lot of people like me whose grandfathers brought them bottles of mercury to play with when they were kids, and they’re FINE. You’re not going to die from eating tuna. This has been blown so far out of proportion, we OUGHT to be laughing at it.[/quote]

Yes, there are different forms of mercury (metallic, inorganic and organic) and organic (note: not inorganic) methylmercury is the most toxic form. Amalgam in dental fillings consists of metallic mercury and some other metals like silver. So it’s not methylmercury and not nearly as toxic. Also, in vaccines mercury exists as ethylmercury which is either nearly as toxic as methylmercury. The mercury your grandfathers gave you was metallic mercury, which is harmful when inhaled as a vapor. At one point in the history of medicine, metallic mercury was even
ingested to cure constipation.

Metallic mercury isn’t absorbed very efficiently in the gut, unlike methylmercury which is rapidly and almost completely absorbed.

Although mercury exists naturally in the earth’s crust, industry (for example power plants using fossil fuels such as coal or incineration of wastes) adds to the burden. Mercury as a mercury vapor can travel very long distances in the air and then return to the earth far away from the industry. In waterways it’s converted to methylmercury by microbes. It enriches in the foodchain so that large, old predatory fish (shark, sword fish, pike etc.) generally have the highest amounts.

So although I consider fish to be an excellent source of nutrients in general, I would avoid REGULAR consumption of those large, old predatory fish, especially from lakes with known high mercury content. Pregnant women or those planning to get pregnant or are breast feeding, should avoid eating them altogether.

32

About a year ago, my son and I both started having eye twitching. As I understand it this is one of the side effect of mercury poisoning. We were eating tuna (albacore) about 2 or 3 times a week and had been eating it for years. We quit the tuna and the eye twitching has never occured again. We don’t eat much tuna now, hardly ever.

33

[quote]JV wrote:

I would avoid REGULAR consumption of those large, old predatory fish, especially from lakes with known high mercury content.[/quote]

Any chance that you could be a bit more specific please? Which fish etc…

34

[quote]CDarklock wrote:
Judecca wrote:
I believe the FDA recommends no more than one can a week

For children, and women who are pregnant or may become pregnant. There is notably no FDA recommendation for adult males to restrict their consumption. The recommendation made by the FDA is to scientifically guarantee that NOBODY ever suffers ANY effect at ALL from mercury, full-stop. It’s essentially a paranoid fantasy that maybe there could conceivably be hidden effects caused by tiny little molecular alterations in your biochemistry if you have this little smidgen of mercury in your system for ten minutes.

The whole mercury problem has been overgeneralised. There are certain types of mercury that create real risks, specifically inorganic methyl-mercury which can be metabolised into a form that effectively crosses the placental barrier and is a known mutagenic, but most mercury is just not a big deal. Inorganic methyl-mercury is now effectively unheard of in any real-world industry.

There are a lot of people walking around right now with a bunch of amalgam fillings in their heads, and they’re FINE. There are a lot of people like me whose grandfathers brought them bottles of mercury to play with when they were kids, and they’re FINE. You’re not going to die from eating tuna. This has been blown so far out of proportion, we OUGHT to be laughing at it.[/quote]

To suggest this is not a problem is simply wrong. I would be laughing, were it not for the effects felt by my wife due to high levels of mercury and other heavy metals.
In an attempt to eat healthier we were eating alot of fish. My wife began experiencing a lot of problems such as hair loss and skin problems. Upon being tested, she was found to have very high levels of Mercury, Arsenic and Cadmium. After chelation therapy and a reduction in fish consumption, she is starting to see a reduction in symptoms.

Furthermore, although anecdotal, there has been a more than casual link made between Timersol (mercury used in vaccines) and the huge leap in the number of Autistic children being born.

Check out this site for more info altcorp.com

Lastly, I had heard of this, but wasn’t sure where. This is an excerpt from a detroit newspaper.

Qoute “in August 1989, also in Michigan, four people living in the same house died of
mercury poisoning. The mercury fumes came from dental fillings. The fillings were
heated in the basement in order to extract the silver. Not only did all the occupants
die horrible deaths, but the house in spite of intense decontamination efforts,
remained uninhabitable and had to be demolished.”

Doesn’t sound so benign to me.

35

[quote]Breakdown wrote:
JV wrote:

I would avoid REGULAR consumption of those large, old predatory fish, especially from lakes with known high mercury content.

Any chance that you could be a bit more specific please? Which fish etc…[/quote]

Tilefish, king mackerel, shark, sword fish, grouper and orange roughy are usually on top of the lists. Here in Finland pike has the highest amounts.

In the Environmental Protection Agency’s website you can find advice about the lakes in specific states (if you are from the USA).

36

Somebody mentioned checking out C&EN news. I posted this about a year ago in another thread, so I will just give the link to that post:

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=482565

37

just throuhgt id throw in my 2 cents…I eat roughly 12-15 cans of chunk light tuna a week…These are the cans that come in the 4 packs at your local grocery store(i usually get bumblebee). I got tested for mercury just for the hell of it, as i thought i ate alot, and my blood work came back completely normal. My doc said i had nothing to worry about, and id have to be consuming 2x the amt i was takin in now to have any contamination. just my experience, figued id share it

38

The ablity to remove certain amount of mercury out of the body depends on genetics. That might explain why some people are easily affected and some aren’t. I don’t know if that’s true but here’s the link that I came across when looking for more info on mercury - The Curse of Mercury in Vaccines - LewRockwell LewRockwell.com

Maybe it’ll get some of guys started looking in the right direction, cross references, look up for specfic things in medline or pubmed to find out if it’s any true.

39

[quote]mfaberdc wrote:
I eat about 9 cans of chunk light tuna a week and I am good so far. I eat it for convience and price. Guess I am finished.

[/quote]

I eat about 10-14 cans of light tuna too. Check please!!!

40

My understanding of this was that farmed oily fish tend to suffer from this more anyway.

However, with sun damage to skin, alcohol (if ye drink) and any other environmetal contaminent, its a small worry.