Cleaning up mercury pollution and reducing prenatal exposure
to the neurotoxin methylmercury (MeHg) could save the European Union €10,000
million per year, finds a new study published in BioMed Central's open access
journal Environmental Health. New estimates suggest that between 1.5 and 2
million children in the EU are born each year with MeHg exposures above the
safe limit of 0.58µg/g and 200,000 above the WHO recommended maximum of
2.5µg/g.
While some mercury occurs naturally in the environment for
example from volcanic eruptions or forest fires, most is generated by burning
fossil fuels. Marine and fresh water species bioconcentrate MeHg; consequently
the main source of exposure for humans is from eating fish.
learn more about mercury: