How much mercury is in that tuna sandwich you had for lunch?
How much mercury is in that tuna sandwich you had for lunch?
There’s an easy way to find out.
In the e-Alert “Mystery in the Brain” (9/24/07) I told you about the FAO/WHO recommendation that no one should ingest more than 1.6 micrograms of mercury per kilogram of body weight in a single week.
I noted that while we appreciate the guideline, there’s no way to estimate how much mercury you’re ingesting unless you live with a chemist who can analyze and measure the chemical content of every fish you eat.
I hope nobody went to the trouble of finding a chemist to live with, because an HSI member named Linda wrote to let us know there’s an easier way.
Linda writes, “There is a website (gotmercury.com) that contains a very effective calculator based on weight and the amount of fish you eat per week. A drop down menu contains every fish known to man.”
The Got Mercury? site appears to be a good resource for calculating how much mercury you ingest based on your weekly fish consumption. Of course, a bass caught in Oregon may not contain the same mercury level as a bass caught in Kentucky, but this site will give you a general idea.
As I mentioned in “Mystery in the Brain,” an animal study that appeared in the Journal Neurotoxicity and Teratology found that selenium and Vitamin E intake may help reduce mercury toxicity.
