EcoHealth News
From "Maple Street Co-op News", Apr/May 2004

Beware of High Mercury Levels in Some Fish

The EU's Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is advising against consumption of tuna and swordfish because they accumulate high levels of methylmercury.

The EFSA said it "recommends that women of childbearing age…select fish from a wide range of species, without giving undue preference to large predatory fish such as swordfish and tuna".

Josef Schlatter, chair of the EFSA scientific panel on contaminants in the food chain, said: "Above safe levels of intake, methylmercury is particularly toxic to the nervous system and developing brain. Exposure during pregnancy and early infancy is therefore of particular concern."

The EFSA wants further dietary studies done among children and women of childbearing age.

[Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/index.php?newsid=6647,
18 March 2004, via Australian Vaccination Network]

Compiled by Ruth Parnell

[From "Maple Street Co-op News", April/May 2004; published by The Maple Street Co-operative Society Ltd, 37 Maple Street, Maleny, Qld 4552, Australia, tel (07) 5494 2088, email maplest.coop@serv.net.au,
website http://www.maplestreetco-op.com.au]

[From "Maple Street Co-op News", August/September 2005; published by The Maple Street Co-operative Society Ltd, 37 Maple Street, Maleny, Qld 4552, Australia, tel (07) 5494 2088, email maplest.coop@serv.net.au,
website http://www.maplestreetco-op.com.au]