Exposing seafood industry’s junk science
It seems the seafood industry’s front groups are more concerned
about attacking environmental groups, public health groups,
scientists and government agencies than actually doing something to
make its products safer and healthier.
Saying there is no connection between coal and methyl mercury in
seafood is the same as the climate deniers saying there is no such
thing as global warming.
This is the same junk science that goes along with denying
climate change and gravity, which both are paid for by the
industry.
Mercury does occur naturally in the environment, and so does
uranium, both equally harmful to our environment and health.
However, what is found in seafood is methyl mercury, and that
mostly comes from coal.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s mercury
report, “Coal power plants are the largest single source for
emitting mercury into the environment.” If we did not burn coal and
other industrial sources, methyl mercury would not be getting into
our water, into the fish, and eventually into us.
Mercury is naturally occurring, but by burning coal from power
plants and other industrial sources, the mercury gets deposited
into our streams and rivers. This mercury, when it gets into our
waterways, then becomes methyl mercury, which gets absorbed by
small plants and continues up the food chain.
When they say it is natural, it is because larger fish like tuna
are eating smaller seafood, which they say is natural. The smaller
fish obtained the mercury from plankton, which absorbed it from the
deposits of mercury that came from the atmosphere, which came from
power plants.
“We are talking about reducing the level of mercury in the fish
that we and our kids eat every day,” the EPA’s Lisa Jackson said on
the agency’s mercury rule.
Mercury not only bio-accumulates in fish, but also in us. That
is why it causes health problems such as neurological disorders and
birth defects. Every scientific expert not working for the fishing
or coal industry sees the risk from industrial sources of power
plants in the food supply, as does the EPA, which promulgated the
mercury rules.
The EPA has advisories about eating too much tuna and other
seafood. What I find most interesting is that the fishing industry
does not support rules that would limit mercury in the environment,
which would make us all safer.
Instead, it would rather lobby against the disclosure of mercury
in our food. It would rather spin and give half-truths to
newspapers than actually do something to help get mercury out of
our environment by supporting the EPA rule.
Reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture are for the need
for protein from fish, not toxins. The dietary guidelines from the
USDA are for the need to eat protein, not mercury.
There are many types of fish that have low-level mercury, for
which the EPA, Sierra Club and other groups have given out charts
and handouts showing which fish are safer to eat. Fish like tuna,
swordfish and shark have higher levels, while salmon, shrimp and
tilapia have lower levels of mercury.
All leading scientists from around the world, including Rutgers
University, the American Medical Association, the Food and Drug
Administration, and the EPA, have studied the dangers of mercury in
seafood and shown the impacts it has on pregnant women.
According to the FDA: “Mercury falls from the air and can
accumulate in streams and oceans, and is turned into methyl mercury
in water. It is this type of mercury that can be harmful to babies
and unborn children.”
Meeting children who have had serious health illnesses from
eating too much fish from mercury is not a hyperbole, but a serious
health problem. We should be working to get this toxin out of the
environment, not covering it up with spin and press releases.
New Jersey, 14 other states and the Sierra Club won an appellate
division case forcing the EPA under the Bush administration to come
up with a rule to deal with mercury because of its impact on the
environment, including fisheries.
The EPA, in its own proposal for the rules, talks about the
safety factor for pregnant women and the impact from seafood.
The seafood industry has also opposed limits on over-fishing,
has opposed nets that would stop killing turtles and dolphins, and
has a dismal environmental record when it comes to factory fish
farming.
It has an abysmal environmental record instead of trying to make
sure our seafood has less toxins, protecting our health and safety.
It would rather lobby with its front groups to spin these mercury
safeguards. It should be making it a priority to protect our health
by making seafood healthier and safer.
The National Fisheries Institution is just a front group for the
fishing industry and is not an institute. It is just like the
groups being funded by the coal industry to deny climate change. It
is being funded by the fishing industry to spew junk science. If
the institution was so concerned about mercury, it would not have
been opposed to the labeling of seafood products about mercury that
directly affects the lives of pregnant women and children.
Jeff Tittel is director of the New Jersey Sierra Club in
Trenton.
Fish & Seafood with Bill & Sheila
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