The study looked at trends of mercury levels in these 3 fish over the past 15 years and used those trends to project where levels will be in 2050.
According to U of T Scarborough Professor George Arhonditsis: "If levels continue to rise, it could pose significant health risks to both the fish and the people consuming them."
"The study is unique because of the richness of data obtained through the Province’s long-running Fish Contaminant Monitoring Program. Not only did it cover a large geographical area but more than 200,000 measurements of fish mercury levels were taken across the province, even including remote locations only accessible by plane."
The article goes on the say that there is a common misunderstanding that mercury levels would be falling because we believe that most mercury pollution comes from human activities and we have seriously cut back on mercury emissions.
But Dr. Nilima Gandhi goes on to say that mercury is a natural element and can be due to natural events as well as human activity. Also, while we have cleaned up our human-caused mercury emissions, some of what is now getting into the river and lake system came from past emissions landed and sat on soil for many years. This contamination only enters the water system by erosion caused by something like a forest fire for example.
This does not negate the fact that mercury is highly toxic. A fetus and children are especially vulnerable.
Source: BayToday.ca
