Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Mercury Levels Dropping in North Atlantic Tuna

By Robert Preidt

HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 23, 2016 (HealthDay Information) -- Mercury ranges in a single tuna species have decreased together with industrial emissions of the damaging chemical ingredient, a brand new examine finds.

The outcomes counsel that reductions in mercury emissions might shortly lead to decrease mercury ranges in some species of ocean fish, in keeping with researcher Nicholas Fisher and colleagues. Fisher is a professor on the Faculty of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook College in Stony Brook, N.Y.

Mercury, a neurotoxin, can hurt the nervous system of people. It accumulates in tuna and different varieties of fish, which has led to warnings in opposition to consuming an excessive amount of tuna, the researchers mentioned in background notes.

Though elevated coal burning in Asia has raised mercury emissions globally, ranges have fallen in North America 2.eight p.c a yr between 1990 and 2007, the researchers mentioned.

Over an identical interval, mercury in north Atlantic waters dropped four.three p.c yearly. And mercury within the air above the North Atlantic Ocean declined 20 p.c from 2001 to 2009, the researchers mentioned.

To evaluate the consequences of these declines, the analysis crew analyzed mercury ranges in tissue samples from almost 1,300 Atlantic bluefin tuna caught between 2004 and 2012.

Throughout that point, mercury ranges within the fish fell a median of 19 p.c, the researchers mentioned in a information launch from the American Chemical Society.

Though encouraging, the examine outcomes do not really show a direct cause-and-effect relationship between adjustments in regional mercury emissions and decrease ranges of the toxin in fish.

The findings have been printed not too long ago within the journal Environmental Science & Know-how.

WebMD Information from HealthDay

Sources

SOURCE: Environmental Science & Know-how, information launch, Nov. 10, 2016

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