Mercury in fish

[Kasper]

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/conten ... a713811113

Methylmecury in albacore (Thunnus alalunga): 1,17 mg/kg * 0,91 = 1,0647 mg/kg
Methylmercury in bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus): 1,18 mg/kg * 0,91 = 1,1638 mg/kg

The provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) for methylmercury is 1.6 µg/kg body weight per week.

This means that a man with 80 kg weight can eat:
1,6 * 60 = 128 µg mecury per week
128 / 1065 = 120 gram albacore tuna per week
128/ 1164 = 110 gram bluefin tuna per week

according to the PTWI

but:

In the case of adults, the Committee considered that intakes of up to about two times higher than the existing PTWI of 1.6 µg/kg bw would not pose any risk of neurotoxicity in adults, although in the case of women of childbearing age, it should be borne in mind that intake should not exceed the PTWI, in order to protect the embryo and fetus.

So, that means 80 kg man can eat more tuna, something like:
240 gram albacore tuna per week
220 gram bluefin tuna per week

But the "consumentenbond" comes with other numbers:
Tunasteak fresh: 0,19 mg/kg Methylmercury


This mean that an 80 kg man could eat:
1347 gram tuna per week

I don't know it, anybody else some good sources ?

[RRM]

Thank you, Kasper, that may be useful info.
Its hard to establish what are hard facts due to the lack of proper experiments.

[Mr. PC]

So an 80 kg man could eat 1347 grams of tuna per week?
How does that translate into Salmon?

[RRM]

So an 80 kg man could eat 1347 grams of tuna per week?

Thats one opinion.
Another opinion is 220 gram / week.

How does that translate into Salmon?

Mercury levels in fish, according to the FDA:
http://www.fda.gov/food/foodsafety/prod ... 115644.htm

So, according to the data of the FDA, tuna contains about 8 to 9 fold more mercury,
so that you can eat 8 to 9 times as much salmon than tuna.

[Mr. PC]

So basically, someone eating less than 200g of salmon a day has no worries.

[RRM]

Indeed, regarding mercury.

[Kookaburra]

Has any of you tested for mercury levels in your body?

[ittybitty]

Yeah I got my blood drawn for a number of tests recently. Mercury levels came back surprisingly high... close to toxicity. No more tuna sashimi for me

[Oscar]

How much/how often did you eat tuna?
What other results did you get?

[ittybitty]

I used to have about 100-200g 2-4 times weekly. Iron was a little low but everything else was normal.

[Oscar]

You might want to check what variety of tuna you've been eating. Some varieties contain more mercury than others.
Good to hear the rest is fine.

[dandate2]

mozart drank mercury straight out of a bottle so it cant be that damaging to your brain

[Oscar]

Well, he died.

[RRM]

There are people who go to war, and survive it,
so at least that cannot be dangerous at all.

[panacea]

Did you guys know the saying "mad as a hatter" came from hatmakers using mercury in the process of making their hats, so their behavior became erratic (because of mercury poisoning effect on brain).