Mercury can act as a toxin that inhibits natural growth of the brain and nervous system of unborn and young children, and can lead to neurological and developmental delays according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

It is well-known that in 1956 in Japan hundreds of people died from eating fish that had accumulated excess levels of industrial methyl-mercury in the Minamata Bay.

For the time being, before the government imposes stricter guidelines to keep this pollutant out of our environment, we can cut down or eliminate eating fish or feeding fish to our children from freshwater sources to less than twice a week.

But, I feel it is a real shame to have to restrict intake of fresh-water fish, becauses it punishes the fishing industry, which is not even the source of the problem!

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, human activities that produce mercury emissions include "coal combustion, chlorine alkali processing, waste incineration and metal processing."

What can we as parents and citizens do about it?

We can write to our legislators in droves and tell them we support the clean up of mercury emissions, and in the meantime think twice about how often we feed our families fresh-water fish.

For a scientific article from the U. S. Geological Survey called "Mercury Contamination of Aquatic Ecosystems" explaining how mercury accumulates in fish, click on this link:
http://water.usgs.gov/wid/FS_216-95/FS_216-95.html

To find out what symptoms mercury poisoning causes in the body go to this link: "Mercury and Human Health" from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
http://www.epa.gov/mercury/health.htm

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