Here’s a depressing article for those of us who think our bodies are spotless temples because we virtuously ingest only organic produce and antibiotic-free meat. Writer David Ewing Duncan went on a “journey of chemical self-discovery” and had himself tested for 320 chemicals. He wrote about the results in this eye-opening article for National Geographic (found via NPR.org), which paid the estimated $15,000 bill for all the tests.
The labs found that Duncan’s body had unusually high levels of toxic PDBEs, the chemicals used to make flame retardants, most likely from all the time he spends in planes. Thanks to playing in a Kansas City dump as a kid that was later classified a Superfund site, he also has residual PCBs and other nasties hanging out in his cells.
Not much we can do about childhood environmental exposure now. The part that made me sit up and take notice came when Duncan did a little experiment with fish. He had already been tested for mercury, and his levels were modest.
But I wondered what would happen if I gorged on large fish for a meal or two. So one afternoon I bought some halibut and swordfish at a fish market in the old Ferry Building on San Francisco Bay. Both were caught in the ocean just outside the Golden Gate, where they might have picked up mercury from the old mines. That night I ate the halibut with basil and a dash of soy sauce; I downed the swordfish for breakfast with eggs (cooked in my nonstick pan).
He had his blood drawn 24 hours later and retested. His mercury levels had more than doubled, entering the higher-than-recommended zone. Yikes!
As Duncan explains and most of us know, mercury is in the atmosphere as a result of coal-burning plants — and also crematoriums, incidentally, from people’s fillings. When it rains, it washes into lakes, streams, and oceans, where bacteria transform it into a compound called methylmercury. Plankton absorb it from the water and pass it up the food chain from fish to bigger fish to bigger fish. Large predatory fish like tuna and swordfish at the top of the food chain have the highest concentrations of methylmercury. In mammals, mercury can damage fetuses and cause mental retardation, learning disabilities, cerebral palsy, blindness and deafness.
So, seafood lovers, eat salmon, sole, and other small fish more often, and save the big ones for special occasions. And in the meantime, all of us should be urging our representatives to enact more stringent mercury controls at coal plants. A new report released Tuesday says that mercury pollution is increasing not just in fish, but is harming and killing birds, mammals, and plants around the country. Vote with your forks, and remember that mouths can be used for yelling as well as eating.
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