How mercuy in fish Affects our health

Did you know that the fish we eat, such as tuna and salmon, all contain small amounts of mercury – a pollutant that can be highly toxic to our nervous systems.

What is mercury?

Mercury is a metal found naturally in the environment. Human activities, such as farming, burning coal, and using mercury in manufacturing, increase the mercury cycling through the air, water, and soil. In water, mercury changes its form and becomes methylmercury. Fish absorb this mercury. When you eat fish containing mercury, you absorb the mercury, and at high levels it can be harmful. Mercury will leave the body over time in the urine, feces, and breast milk.

how it affects our health?

The toxicity of mercury depends on its chemical form, and thus symptoms and signs are rather different in exposure to elemental mercury, inorganic mercury compounds, or organic mercury compounds (notably alkylmercury compounds such as methylmercury and ethylmercury salts, and dimethylmercury). The sources of exposure are also markedly different for the different forms of mercury. For alkylmercury compounds, among which methylmercury is by far the most important, the major source of exposure is diet, especially fish and other seafood. For elemental mercury vapour, the most important source for the general population is dental amalgam, but exposure at work may in some situations exceed this by many times. For inorganic mercury compounds, diet is the most important source for the majority of people. However, for some segments of populations, use of skin-lightening creams and soaps that contain mercury, and use of mercury for cultural/ritualistic purposes or in traditional medicine, can also result in substantial exposures to inorganic or elemental mercury.

While it is fully recognised that mercury and its compounds are highly toxic substances for which potential impacts should be considered carefully, there is ongoing debate on how toxic these substances, especially methylmercury, are. New findings during the last decade indicate that toxic effects may be taking place at lower concentrations than previously thought, and potentially larger parts of the global population may be affected. As the mechanisms of subtle toxic effects – and proving whether such effects are taking place – are extremely complex issues, a complete understanding has so far not been reached on this very important question.