In article ta23d.213689$Fg5.102457@attbi_s53, wrote:

http://www.fda.gov/fdac/reprints/mercury.html

Mercury Is Everywhere


Mercury occurs naturally in the environment. According to FDA toxicologist
Mike Bolger, Ph.D., approximately 2,700 to 6,000 tons of mercury are
released annually into the atmosphere naturally by degassing from the
Earth's crust and oceans. Another 2,000 to 3,000 tons are released annually
into the atmosphere by human activities, primarily from burning household
and industrial wastes, and especially from fossil fuels such as coal.

The Hawke

The website you point to asks if mercury in fish is cause for concern. The
answer is a resounding yes.

Besides the warnings on the page you cite, against eating more than 12
ounces of fish per week, here's another FDA-generated warning:
http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/admehg.html
Title: "An important message for pregnant women and women of childbearing
age who may become pregant, about the risks of mercury in fish."
Recommendation: "long-lived, larger fish that feed on other fish
accumulate the highest levels of methylmercury and pose the greatest risk
to people who eat them regularly. You can protect your unborn child by
not eating these large fish...Shark, Swordfish, King macerel, Tilefish."
The article notes also that FRESHwater fish are more dangerously
contaminated.

Yet another joint FDA & EPA warning is a little more strident:
http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/fishadvice/advice.html
It says plainly not to eat more than 12 ounces of fish a week if you want
to remain in the safe zone.

The greatest dangers to exposures to the least amounts of mercury are
prenatal. At present typical mercury levels are not thought to be a
significant health hazard to adults. But the really dangerous levels of
both mercery & dioxin are in farm-raised fish rather than wild-caught,
though dioxin is a growing problem with wild-caught as well, from
pesticides that wash into bodies of water, & from waste management
programs that generate dioxins as a byproduct pumped directly in the
oceans.

Commercial fishing enterprises and especially fish farming umbrella
organizations are busily generating "mercury is safe" literature & "FDA
uses junk science" disinformation in order to drum up public support to
reverse FDA and EPA protections against mercury poisoning. Dickhead Cheney
would like nothing better than reverse all consumer protection
legislations of any kind but most especially those like the Mercury act
promoted primarily by Cheney's archenemy Patrick Leahy. Republicans are
even now attempting to reverse Senator Leahy's mercury contamination bill,
& have already pressured EPA into maintaining a level of acceptable
exposure about one-fifth that of the FDA recommendations.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com