Have you heard about the "comprehensive" study (shouldn't all studies be comprehensive?) about mercury in fish from the delta? It's been in the paper lately. We've known for years that there is mercury in fish and we have to be careful how much we eat. But now they've determined that the amount of mercury depends on the type of fish and where in the delta it lived.
So some are safer than others. Basically, the larger, predator fish have more mercury than the smaller species and the fish caught nearer Sacramento will have more than the fish caught lower down. Great. Information we need, as long as we remember to take it to the store with us and ask the seafood clerk where the fish was caught and hopefully, he or she will know that.
Not really likely, methinks.
My only point is a complaint I've had ever since I was a teenager: why do business people (whoever or whatever kind of business) feel they have the right to pollute our water (in this example) to make it easier and cheaper for them to do business?
This has always pissed me off. In this particular case, the mercury (most of it) is a holdover from our golddigging days. You heard me - over 150 years ago! It was cheaper and faster to blast the hills with high-pressured water and wash all the debris into the rivers, so that's what they did.
Okay, maybe they didn't know they were washing mercury into the rivers and condemning their descendants to a polluted environment and poisonous fish. But this kind of thing happened all over, with all kinds of industries. It's why we insist on having regulations on businesses, now. It's why businesses will pack up and go to China or someplace without regulations, so they can poison those people and save some money.
And my reaction has not changed from the way I thought 35 years ago, and this is the way I run my own business, now:
If you can't afford to run your business in a way that protects and sustains the environment and the people around you, then don't be in business. Please, do something else. We don't want you.
1 comment:
It is absolutely correct that some fish are safer than others; people just need a way to stay informed about which fish are harmful. According to the FDA, fish with the highest levels of mercury include king mackerel, shark, swordfish, and tilefish. Unfortunately, this advice isn’t making much head-way into the greater public.
But wouldn’t it be great if the next time you went to buy fish at your local grocery store, there was a clear FDA warning about which fish are safe to eat and which should be avoided? Some grocers like Safeway, Trader Joe’s, Wild Oats, and some Albertsons are already posting the advice, but other grocers like Kroger, Costco and Publix have refused to post a warning. Stores not posting the advice should get on Oceana’s Green List of grocers, pronto! Check it out at our mercury web page.
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