Mercury exposure in humans primarily results from eating fish that contains methylmerucry. Mercury is primarily a neurotoxin, which means it attacks the central nervous system. Its effects are often subtle enough not to be recognized immediately, but more and more people are learning that their health problems could be due to mercury exposure.

~Oceana.org

I love seafood. More specifically, I love sushi. I mean really love it! This post isn’t about my adornment for sushi but to explore what health effects consuming the wrong amount of sushi can have on myself and other human beings, I have at least some reason to explore this further:

Sushi eater? [check]

Bad swimmer? [check]

Kids? [uncheck]

Plans for kids? [check]

After watching The Cove, my interest grew in learning more about where my food was coming from. The film highlights how many restaurants have been serving its customer’s dolphin meat which has extreme high levels of mercury; the numbers are quite revealing. The primary focus of the Cove’s producers is to tell the story of dolphin slaughter in a small, relatively unknown, Japanese island. The Cove took top honors at this year’s Academy Awards for Best Documentary.

Margie McClain, Georgia Field Organizer with Oceana, invited me to be a part of an event that would raise awareness around the issue of mercury pollution. My experience with oceans or marine biology is quite limited but as a sustainability advocate, this made perfect sense for me to get involved with. Mercury is something we have not discussed here at Aribra.com and found this to be a great time given what’s going on with House Bill H.R. 2190, the Mercury Pollution Reduction Act. This bill would mandate the chlor-alkali industry to modernize their plants that emit mercury into the environment.

This Friday, I’m taking part in “Fill the Gills Pass the Bill: Mercury Free Pub Crawl”. I’m excited to be apart of the effort to raise awareness about a very important issue. What are your communities doing to promote better air and water quality?