This element with chemical symbol Hg can be found in a form of metallic mercury, inorganic mercury and in compounds of organic mercury. In the environment it can be found in water, rocks and soil. Mercury is a heavy, silvery-white metal. As compared to other metals, it is a poor conductor of heat, but a fair conductor of electricity. At room temperatures, this form of mercury is a dazzling silver liquid. When heat is applied, metallic mercury becomes an odorless, invisible gas.
How does Mercury get into the Environment?
The main contributions of Mercury to the environment are coal fired electricity generation, burning fossil fuels, smelting, mining and incineration of waste. The main percentage of Mercury in the can be found in rocks beneath the surface.
As a lack of safe disposal the Mercury often ends up in the sea and with that in the seafood that we consume. The pollution is caused when Mercury is used to manufacture light bulbs, switches and thermometers.
The Bioaccumulation of Mercury in Its Most Toxic Form
Methylmercury is highly toxic organic compound of Mercury . Methylmercury is formed from inorganic mercury by the action of anaerobic organisms that live in aquatic systems including lakes, rivers, wetlands, sediments, soils and the open ocean. This methylation process converts inorganic mercury to methylmercury in the natural environment. Methlymercury is more toxic and takes much longer for organisms to eliminate it from their systems. Bacteria that contain methlymercury either excrete the mercury into water or organisms higher up the food chain consume the mercury-laden bacteria. Methylmercury then travels the waterways to the ocean.
With the water pollution Methylmercury travels up the food chain. Methlymercury accumulates in organisms faster than they can eliminate it. Animals consume and retain higher amounts of mercury each step up the food chain. This is why methlymercury is found in the highest amounts in large predatory fish such as tuna. This mercury biomagnification is most problematic for fish eating wildlife such as dolphins and some whales and certainly poses a problem for us.
The scientific American made a research in order to discover in which type of fish mercury is most present. In the article How Does Mercury Get Into Fish they published the following data:
Fish with highest contamination are:
- Walleye
- King mackerel
- Marlin
- Bluefin tuna
Slightly less than this but still contaminated in large proportion are :
- Shark
- Bluefish
- Swordfish
- Wild Sturgeon
- Bigeve tuna
- Opah
And contaminated to least content are :
- Blue Crab
- Lingcod
- Orange roughly
- Halibut
- Tile fish
- Blackfin
- Yellowfin tuna
- Albacore
- Rock fish
- Sable fish
- Spanish mackerel
- Spotted seatrout
- Wahoo
- Grouper
- Snapper
And fishes that have only traces of methyl mercury and that we strongly recommend you consuming while at the same time we recommend you to avoid the above mentioned are:
- Salmon
- Tilapia
- shrimp
- tuna
- cod
- catfish
Conclusion
Be attentive when you are buying seafood. Make sure that it is fresh and not farm raised. Also consume food like onions, brazil nuts, chlorella and spirulina because they have the power to naturally detoxify the body.
Here you can find a recipe for homemade multi-vitamin nutrition formula .
If you are interested more about how you can detoxify you body you can read that here Detoxify from Heavy Metals .
Sourced: naturalnews
