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.
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