Are pollutants in our air causing many of our children to become mentally retarded?

According to new research released today, the U.S. is losing billions of dollars each year due to the impact of mercury poisoning on brain development.

There are many things that can cause mental retardation, from genetic conditions, to infections during pregnancy, to the expecting mother drinking alcohol while pregnant. But there are also environmental factors, and one of them, mercury, is a hot topic, in part, because these cases are preventable.

Dr. Leo Trasande is a pediatrician and assistant director of the Mt. Sinai center for children’s health and the environment. He says, “Mercury gets into the water, where it’s transformed into methyl mercury. Small fish take up that methyl mercury and bigger fish eventually eat little fish. Women eventually take in that methyl mercury and it enters the blood stream where it crosses the placenta and causes brain damage in hundreds of thousands of children each year.”

And that is the subject of new research putting a dollar value on mental retardation caused by mercury poisoning.

“This costs the nation 2 billion dollars in special education services, home care, medical care, and special education. So the total cost of mercury poisoning to our nation economically is 10.7 billion dollars each year, but the real human cost is incalculable. Mental retardation from mercury poisoning is about 3% of the mental retardation nationwide,” says Dr. Trasande.

He says the big source of mercury poisoning is coal fired power plants, but the problem can be corrected by putting filters on them, which prevents the release of mercury into the air, which then falls to the streams and rivers.

“There are actually coal fired power plants that have gone ahead and just out of good will, have spent the money to put filters to prevent mercury poisoning. Those plants are doing very well and that hasn’t stopped them from economic productivity in any way whatsoever. So it doesn’t make good common sense for many of the companies to be fighting over the right to emit more mercury in our nation and damage children’s brains,” says Dr. Trasande.

For the time being, the key to protecting yourself and your children from mercury poisoning is to avoid fish which contain high levels of mercury, namely mackerel, shark, swordfish, and tilefish. Local fresh fish should be eaten with caution as well. “When local sources produce mercury it falls into local water. It can get into high levels even in some of the smaller fish that you think that are safe. We tell women to look at the states on the EPA website.”

If you regularly eat types of fish that are high in methyl mercury, it can accumulate in your blood stream over time, and cause mercury poisoning. Methyl mercury is removed from the body naturally, but it may take over a year for the levels to drop significantly. Thus, it may be present in a woman even before she becomes pregnant. This is the reason why women who are trying to become pregnant should also avoid eating certain types of fish.

We should point out that fish is for the most part good for you. Fish is in fact brain food, containing Omega-3 fatty acids which are critical for brain development and it’s especially important that women and children eat those foods. This needs to be weighed against the measures necessary to prevent mercury poisoning.

For more information, go to www.epa.gov.
or www.greenpeace.org

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