Methylmercury's toxic toll.More than 60,000 children are born each year in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. with neurodevelopmental impairments caused by exposure in the womb to methylmercury compounds methylmercury compounds fungistatic agents used in stored feeds. They include methylmercury acetate, chloride, dicyandiamide and hydroxide. When treated grain is accidentally fed to livestock, poisoning may result. See mercury poisoning. , according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. new estimates by an expert panel convened by the National Academy of Sciences. The panel released its 290-page review of methylmercury's toxicity earlier this month. Many industrial processes, especially fossil-fuel burning, spew inorganic mercury into the air. Once it rains down, the pollutant usually undergoes a chemical transformation--methylation--into a much more toxic form. Fish and other aquatic life readily pick up and store the resulting methylmercury (MeHg) in their fat (SN: 3/9/91, p. 152). At highest risk, therefore, are children whose mothers ate large amounts of tainted taint v. taint·ed, taint·ing, taints v.tr. 1. To affect with or as if with a disease. 2. To affect with decay or putrefaction; spoil. See Synonyms at contaminate. 3. fish and other seafood during pregnancy. Because fish provide a host of healthy nutrients, the panel argues that the long-term goal should be reducing MeHg concentrations in U.S. fish, not cutting fish from the diet. Although the effects of MeHg exposure are subtle, the panel argues, they could "result in an increase in the number of children who have to struggle to keep up in school and who might require remedial classes or special education." Philippe A. Grandjean of Boston University School of Public Health Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) is Boston University's graduate School of Public Health. It is located in the heart of Boston University's Medical Campus in the South End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The Dean is Robert Meenan. found such subtle problems in language, attention, and memory among more than 900 Faroe Islands Faroe Islands or Faeroe Islands Group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean that form a self-governing region of Denmark. Area: 540 sq mi (1,399 sq km). Population: (2002 est.) 47,400. 7-year-olds, whose mothers had eaten MeHg-tainted seafood during pregnancy. Most cognitive problems were linked to MeHg exposures "considered safe," he reported last month in Bar Harbor, Maine Bar Harbor, Maine, may refer to:
The National Academy of Sciences panel also cited studies linking MeHg exposures to high blood pressure and abnormal heart rates. The studies sometimes found such effects from exposures even lower than those causing neurodevelopmental harm. The report concludes, however, that toxicity has emerged mainly within a special, fairly small population--people who eat large amounts of local fish. For everyone else, it finds EPA's current MeHg guidelines "justifiable." |
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