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To the Editor: 

Recent reports that health-conscious Americans may be poisoning themselves with mercury by eating too much fish may come as a shock. It shouldn’t – what goes around, comes around. 

We’ve known for decades about the dangers of mercury contaminating the environment and popular seafoods such as tuna, swordfish and shark. Still, even as seafood consumption has steadily risen, mercury pollution from power plants and other sources has continued. Industrial processes emit mercury into the air, which settles into water as methylmercury, travels up the food chain into fish and is consumed by humans. 

Mercury contamination of seafood is a persistent public health threat that poses a significant risk – not only to children and women of childbearing age, as previously thought, but also to adults. Mercury accumulates in the human liver, kidney, brain and blood. Even at low levels, it can harm a child’s developing nervous system, leading to loss of motor skills, mental retardation and other birth defects. Mercury has also been shown to cause kidney failure, cardiovascular collapse and genetic damage in adults. 

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 48 tons of mercury were released in 1999 from utilities burning coal and other fossil fuels. And utilities are not the only sources. Mercury is also released through the incineration of hazardous wastes, through oil refining and medical waste. 

Despite all we know about the health impacts of mercury, our government is failing to properly respond to this pollution threat. The Bush administration is pushing the so-called Clear Skies Initiative, which would actually diminish our air quality by allowing more sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide and mercury emissions than under the current Clean Air Act. Meanwhile, seafood consumption is on the rise. But the Food and Drug Administration has failed to warn pregnant women about the hazards of eating fish contaminated with mercury, particularly canned tuna. 

While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and state regulators issue seafood warnings that downplay the health risks, industrial fishing fleets and industrial polluters reap big federal subsidies to continue to over-fish our oceans and contaminate an irreplaceable food source. Unsustainable fishing methods such as longlines and gillnets scour the oceans and coasts, over-fishing the seas and killing endangered sea turtles and dolphins, to bring contaminated fish to our tables. The cycle is viscous.  

Bill Walker, vice president of the Oakland-based Environmental Working Group 

Todd Steiner, director of San Francisco-based Turtle Island Restoration Network