| Mercury in Commercial Fish: Optimizing Individual Choices to Reduce Risk Joanna Burger,1,2 Alan H. Stern,3,4 and Michael
Gochfeld2,4 1Division of Life Sciences, Rutgers University, Piscataway,
New Jersey, USA; 2Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
Institute, Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation, and
School of Public Health, Rutgers University/University of Medicine & Dentistry
of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA; 3Division
of Science, Research, and Technology, New Jersey Department of Environmental
Protection, Trenton, New Jersey, USA; 4Environmental and Occupational
Medicine, University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood
Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA Abstract
Most attention to the risks from fish consumption has focused on recreational anglers and on fish caught by individuals, but the majority of fish that people eat are purchased from commercial sources. We examined mercury levels in three types of fish (tuna, flounder, bluefish) commonly available in New Jersey stores, sampling different regions of the state, in communities with high and low per capita incomes, and in both supermarkets and specialty fish markets. We were interested in species-specific levels of mercury in New Jersey fish and whether these levels were similar to data generated nationally by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA ; mainly from 1990 to 1992) on the same types of fish. Such information is critical for providing public health advice. We were also interested in whether mercury levels in three common species of fish differed by region of the state, economic neighborhood, or type of store. We found significant species differences, with tuna having the highest levels and flounder the lowest levels. There were no significant differences in mercury levels as a function of type of store or economic neighborhood. There was only one regional difference: flounder from fish markets along the Jersey shore had higher mercury levels than flounder bought in other markets. We also examined mercury levels in six other commonly available fish and two shellfish from central New Jersey markets. There were significant differences in availability and in mercury levels among fish and shellfish. Both shrimp and scallops had total mercury levels < 0.02 ppm (wet weight) . Large shrimp had significantly lower levels of mercury than small shrimp. For tuna, sea bass, croaker, whiting, scallops, and shrimp, the levels of mercury were higher in New Jersey samples than those reported by the FDA. Consumers selecting fish for ease of availability (present in > 50% of markets) would select flounder, snapper, bluefish, and tuna (tuna had the highest mercury value) , and those selecting only for price would select whiting, porgy, croaker, and bluefish (all with average mercury levels < 0.3 ppm wet weight) . Flounder was the fish with the best relationship among availability, cost, and low mercury levels. We suggest that state agencies responsible for protecting the health of their citizens should obtain information on fish availability in markets and fish preferences of diverse groups of citizens and use this information to select fish for analysis of contaminant levels, providing data on the most commonly eaten fish that will help people make informed decisions about risks from fish consumption. Key words: commercial fish, consumption, fish, mercury, New Jersey, risk assessment, FDA. Environ Health Perspect 113:266-271 (2005) . doi:10.1289/ehp.7315 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 7 December 2004]
Address correspondence to J. Burger, 604 Allison Rd., Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey, 08854-8082 USA. Telephone: (732) 445 4319. Fax: (732) 445 5870. E-mail: burger@biology.rutgers.edu This research was supported by the Division of Science, Research, and Technology, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, a National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Center grant (ESO 5022) , the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (Department of Energy, nos. DE-FC01-95EW55084, DE-FG 26-00NT 40938) , and Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute. The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the authors. The authors declare they have no competing financial interests. Received 9 June 2004 ; accepted 7 December 2004. Correction
In the original manuscript published online, the authors stated that they found “single fillets of tuna, Chilean sea bass, croaker, and red snapper that had > 2 ppm mercury.” This statement has been corrected here to indicate that “only tuna fillets had > 2 ppm mercury.” The full version of this article is available for free in HTML or PDF formats. |
