Something fishy about mercury!

Article Outline

• Copyright

Despite its otherwise health-promoting nutritional profile, some concern has been expressed about fish as a potential source of mercury in children. This concern, however, has yet to be subjected to careful testing.

In this issue of The Journal, Innis et al in British Columbia report an analysis of blood mercury levels, some indices of child behavior, and a plasma marker of fish intake. They found a disturbingly high level of mercury in the blood of many children, especially those of Chinese ethnicity. Some of these had behavioral features consistent with neurotoxicity.

An accompanying editorial by Jacobson and Jacobson highlights an important feature of the Innis study. It appears that the major source of mercury in these Chinese children was not local (Vancouver) fish, but rather imported product. This points out the importance of examining specific groups of children (i.e. immigrants) whose risk for environmental exposures may exceed those of the population as a whole; the important observations of Innis et al could have been lost in a broader study of all Vancouver children.