Mercury Blues

There's something fishy about the way your government polices the seafood you eat.

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There's a good chance you'll get more mercury in your seafood than what the government says is safe.

The Chicago Tribune has a three-part series on the presence of mercury in fish sold in supermarkets.

Reporters found out that mercury is more of a problem than what the government has been telling us.

We know that mercury can cause learning disabilities in children...and neurological problems in adults.

Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) calls it “one of the nation’s most comprehensive studies of mercury in commercial fish."

The newspaper commissioned labs to test a variety of popular seafood. The Tribune also dug up documents and conducted interviews looking into the problem of mercury in seafood.

The results showed the seafood was so tainted that federal regulators could confiscate the fish for violating food safety rules.

One piece of sword fish the paper tested showed it had three times the legal limit of mercury.

Documents show that the federal government seldom test's fish entering the US for mercury or other metals. They also found evidence that regulators often made decisions to benefit the industry...at the expense of your health.

The paper says that makes it difficult for you to avoid mercury in your fish, no matter where you buy it.