Guest guest Posted July 1, 2003 Report Share Posted July 1, 2003 ***************************Advertisement*************************** eCentral - Your Entertainment Guide http://www.star-ecentral.com ***************************************************************** This message was forwarded to you by yitzeling. Comment from sender: This article is from The Star Online (http://thestar.com.my) URL: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2003/7/1/features/mercury & sec=fe\ atures ________________________ Tuesday, July 01, 2003 Poisonous deception Mercury-tainted dolphin meat is being passed off as whalemeat in Japan. DOLPHIN and porpoise meat is widely and illegally sold in Japan as whalemeat and all three foods are so riddled with mercury that just a tiny meal could exceed safety levels, a study said recently. “Contaminated cetacean (whale, dolphin and porpoise) products are widely available in Japan & #8217;s retail outlets,” according to the report, conducted by a British-based environmental watchdog which made seafood purchases in stores across Japan and then had them analysed for toxicity and genetic ID. The study Mercury Rising is written by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), known for its undercover work to expose environmental abuse. EIA conducted four surveys of cetacean products on sale in Japanese stores between April 2001 and February 2003. It sent 58 products for tests at the Daiichi College of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Fukuoka. In nine out of 24 samples where it was possible to obtain a DNA result, tissue that was described as whalemeat turned out to be dolphin or porpoise. That suggests around one-third of cetacean products on sale in Japan are mislabelled this way, the study says. As for toxicity, the Japanese government has a permitted level of 0.4 parts per million (ppm) of mercury in seafood and 0.3ppm of methylmercury, a more poisonous form of mercury derived by the action of bacteria in the water. Mercury safety limits were breached in 62% of the samples and methylmercury limits were exceeded in 53% of them. The average level of mercury was 2.05ppm and that of methylmercury 1.13ppm & #8211; respectively more than five times and nearly four times the maximum allowable levels. On that basis, it would take just 151g of a typical cetacean product to exceed the maximum weekly limit, EIA says. All the small cetacean samples were above the limit, for both mercury and methylmercury. In one case, a 13g purchase, made in Okayama, of “Raw Whale from Iwate” turned out to be bottlenose dolphin, with a mercury level of 22.5ppm & #8211; an astonishing 56 times the permitted level & #8211; and methylmercury of 10.88ppm, 36 times the limit. Just a spoonful of this meat would exceed the maximum weekly dosage. The irony, says the report, is that whalemeat is marketed in Japan as a health food, distributed for school lunches and even for medical benefit. Last year, University of Hokkaido researchers found that liver samples taken from whales and dolphins had average concentrations of mercury that were 900 times above the safety limit. Two of the samples were 9,000 times the limit. Mercury, an element that is discharged into the sea by industrial plants, accumulates in living organisms and is passed up the food chain. Toothed cetaceans, such as dolphins, have higher levels of mercury because they are eaters of fish or squid, whereas balleen whales, which use a comb to catch small marine creatures, have somewhat lower levels. Following the release of the EIA report, the Japanese government announced it will tighten inspections of fish vendors to prevent dolphin and porpoise meat from being illegally sold as whalemeat. Japan has also warned pregnant women against eating big fish and whales at the top of the food chain because mercury in their flesh may harm foetuses. & #8211; AFP<p> ________________________ Your one-stop information portal: The Star Online http://thestar.com.my http://biz.thestar.com.my http://classifieds.thestar.com.my http://cards.thestar.com.my http://search.thestar.com.my http://star-motoring.com http://star-space.com http://star-jobs.com http://star-ecentral.com http://star-techcentral.com 1995-2003 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Star Publications is prohibited. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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