2024-02-21 17:32:42
Methylmercury is ingested by all marine organisms, from plankton to the largest predators, including salmon, sharks and tuna. Richard Carey / stock.adobe.com
Despite the decline in atmospheric emissions in recent decades, the levels recorded in fish flesh are not weakening.
Tuna is one of the most popular seafood products. It is also one of the foods most contaminated with mercury, a heavy metal harmful to health. Despite the drop in atmospheric emissions in recent decades, consumer exposure to this toxic substance is not weakening, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters.
Mercury in the gaseous state is emitted into the atmosphere naturally, but also and above all by human activities which have caused its concentration in the atmosphere to jump by 450% in five centuries.
Anaïs Médieu, researcher at the Research Institute for Development (IRD)
« Mercury in the gaseous state is emitted into the atmosphere naturally, but also and above all by human activities – the burning of coal, gold panning, the production of cement or metals -, which have caused a jump of 450 % its concentration in the atmosphere in five centuries », explains the main author of the study Anaïs Médieu, researcher at the Research Institute for Development (IRD). Very volatile, mercury can travel around the planet in a few months. It will be deposited on the ground or in the oceans where part of it is then converted into methylmercury (MeHg), its most…
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