If you eat fish, know the risk from mercury

You may like lemon juice or tartar sauce on your fish. What you may not realize is that another condiment is added to every serving of fish you eat: Mercury.

This year, the U.S. Geological Survey released a report showing mercury contamination in every sample of fish taken from 291 streams and rivers throughout the U.S.

Worse, North Carolina has the added distinction of being on the short list of states with the highest levels of contamination in the country. South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Louisiana round out the list.

A national listing of fish advisories, available online from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, underscores this reality. Small blue dots scattered throughout a map of the U.S. indicate areas where contamination levels exceed safe thresholds.

The eastern half of North Carolina is a solid mass of blue.

Mercury is a neurotoxin that causes learning disabilities, lower IQs and developmental delays in babies and children.

Emissions from coal-fired power plants spew mercury into the air, and then it falls into rivers and streams. Forests and wetlands in our state provide conditions that enhance the conversion of mercury into methylmercury, a highly toxic form that accumulates in fish.

What does this mean for fish-eaters in our state?

Fish is generally a far better food choice than poultry or red meats. It's lower in saturated fat and may contain health-supporting omega-3 fatty acids.

When it's laced with mercury or other contaminants, though, the choice is not so clear.

If you eat fish caught in North Carolina or neighboring states, you need to know what you're eating and make sure it's safe. For starters:

Be aware and take care. Heed fish advisories.

Pregnant and nursing women, women in their childbearing years (ages 15 to 44), and all children and teens under the age of 15 are particularly vulnerable and need to avoid mercury-infused fish.

The rest of us can eat up to one mercury-laced fish meal each week. But do you really want to?

In North Carolina, freshwater fish highest in mercury content include largemouth bass caught anywhere in the state and blackfish (bowfin), catfish (wild-caught), jack fish (chain pickerel) and warmouth caught south and east of Interstate 85.

Many more ocean fish are also high in mercury, including canned white tuna (albacore), king mackerel, orange roughy, shark, swordfish, tilefish, fresh or frozen tuna, south Atlantic grouper, marlin and others.

Keep up with changes in the advisories. Current advice on eating fish in North Carolina - and a list of fish highest and lowest in mercury - is available online from the North Carolina Division of Public Health at www.rabies.ncdhhs.gov/epi/fish/safefish.html

Support policies to clean up our state. Groups such as Environment North Carolina and the North Carolina Sierra Club are working to reduce pollution caused by coal-fired power plants in and within the drift-zone of our state.

Get your protein from plant sources. Beans, lentils, grains and vegetables contain fewer contaminants in lower concentrations. They also contain dietary fiber and health-supporting phytochemicals not found in fish and other meats.

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