Fish consumption and Mercury Level Danger

Based on the journal by Pandey (2013), it stated that there is a greater concern or focus which of
mercury exposure to foetus rather than to adult. The reason is because some mothers which were
exposed to mercury but has no symptoms of mercury poisoning gave birth to their babies which have
severe damage to the brain, which was shown in Minamata case. Methyl mercury will readily cross the
placenta via blood circulation which makes the concentration of mercury in the foetus blood is a bit
higher rather than the maternal level. Scientists stated that an exposure of mercury to prenatal may
decrease the ability of infants and children on neuro-behavioural tests. This tests include test of
attention, fine motor function, language skills, visual-spatial abilities and also memory. Foetus and
children are more prone to mercury since they develop signs of low normality responses in early life and
it continues to develop.

The level of mercury in the fish may be around 10.000 to 100.000 times more in comparison to the
original concentration. In salt fish, the mercury content of fish is around 0.35 until 70.02 ppm2. Mercury
accumulation is quick whereas the depuration is very slow. EPA and FDA give some concerns to
pregnant women, soon-to-be-pregnant women, nursing mothers and young children up to 6 years old to
prevent some types of fish which are high in number of methyl mercury. These organizations stated that
children should only intake for 6 ounces of fish.

Pandey, Govind, Madhuri S., dan A. B. Shrivastav. 2013. Contamination of mercury in fish and its toxicity
to both fish and humans: an overview. International Research Journal of Pharmacy. Vol 3 no. 2