(JP)Dolphin products have high mercury levels

March 17, 2002

Dolphin products have high mercury levels

WASHINGTON (Kyodo) Processed foods made in Japan from

dolphin entrails -- often sold as those of whales --

are highly contaminated with mercury, Japanese

researchers said here Saturday.

A study by researchers from the Health Sciences

University of Hokkaido and the Daiichi College of

Pharmaceutical Sciences found that two of the 26

products they purchased between 1999 and 2000 in Japan

contained 2,000 micrograms of mercury per gram, nearly

5,000 times higher than the density level considered

safe under standards set by Japan's Health, Labor and

Welfare Ministry.

All the remaining products also had mercury density

levels far higher than the safety level of 0.4

microgram set by the ministry.

The 26 products -- packages of boiled dolphin

entrails, such as livers, kidneys and lungs -- were

bought in Wakayama Prefecture, where the two products

worst affected were purchased, and Tokyo. The products

were labeled as those of whales.

" Japan needs prompt countermeasures, as the density

level is expected to have adverse effects on those who

ate the products, " said Tetsuya Endo, a lecturer at

the Hokkaido university and one of the researchers.

The Japanese research group will announce the results

of their study at a five-day meeting of the U.S.

Society of Toxicology, which will start Sunday in

Nashville, Tennessee.

The Japan Times: March 17, 2002

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