Mercury Mania: How Much Tuna Can You Safely Eat?
You probably already know that exposure to high levels of mercury can have toxic effects harming the brain, lungs, heart, kidney, and immune system.
Symptoms of mercury poisoning usually include issues with vision, hearing, speech and coordination. In fact the phrase mad as a hatter, and the Mad Hatter from "Alice in Wonderland", are both likely references to mercury poisoning, since mercury-based compounds were once used to make hats.
While mercury can be found in certain work settings, and it is used in the manufacturing of certain products like fluorescent light bulbs, by far our biggest exposure to mercury these days is through fish in our diet.
For many of us it is canned tuna that gives us the greatest dose of the heavy metal. But just how much tuna can you safely eat each week and not exceed what the FDA considers a safe mercury exposure level? Go here and try the Environmental Working Group’s “Tuna Calculator” to find out. You’re likely to be surprised by the results.
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An enthusiastic believer in the power of natural healing, Alice has spent virtually her entire 17-year career in the natural-health publishing field helping to spread the word.
She is an advocate of self-education and is passionate about the power of group knowledge sharing, like the kind found right here on HealthierTalk.com. Alice loves to share her views on holistic and natural healing as well as her, sometimes contentious, thoughts on the profit-driven inner workings of traditional medicine.
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Comments
Howard
I disagree with the statement: "by far our biggest exposure to mercury these days is through fish in our diet." Fish are not the real "source "of mercury in our environment. Dental Amalgam is the largest source of mercury in sewers and sewer sludge, and thus a major source in water bodies, fish, crops, and the atmosphere- due to sludge outgasing and high emissions from crematoria.
The greatest dose of mercury people obtain is from their dental amalgam fillings. And since most people have dental amalgam fillings, it is these mercury amalgam fillings which are the greatest source of mercury for these people. (which are most people)
Also coal-fired power plants are a large source of mercury pollution in this country. They emit an estimated 50 tons of mercury into the atmosphere yearly.
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