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Alerting Everyone About Mercury
By Andy Peri
Next time you're in a grocery store, look at what's not there, and think about who is getting hurt. In California, grocery stores are only required to post mercury warning signs to protect the health of families from mercury-contaminated seafood in English only; signs in Laotian, Chinese, Spanish and other commonly spoken languages simply don't exist.
Posting warnings in multiple languages is a simple, inexpensive step that can protect many more Californians from mercury poisoning. All residents of California, including non-English-speaking residents, need to be protected from mercury-contaminated seafood; it is fair and it is just. Four in 10 Californians speak a language other than English in the home, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Among those who speak Spanish, for example, 37 percent report that they either don't speak English very well or cannot speak it at all.
Such demographics should cause alarm for public-heath agencies throughout California, but neither the state, nor California grocers or restaurateurs, are doing anything to ensure that all consumers are protected from this dangerous neurotoxin.
Methylmercury, the form of mercury found in fish, is a potent neurotoxin that can irreversibly damage the nervous system of developing fetuses and young children. As a result, federal and state health warnings are directed toward women of childbearing age. Additionally, studies show mercury to be associated with kidney damage, immune-system suppression and heart disease in adults.
Mercury warning signs, as required under California's Proposition 65, warn women of childbearing age and mothers not to eat mercury-contaminated fish such as swordfish, shark and king mackerel; the Food and Drug Administration warns additionally against consuming too much canned albacore tuna. A recently posted mercury calculator on www.gotmercury.org allows seafood consumers to gauge their own level of mercury exposure and to help them minimize future exposure.
Despite the serious nature of potential exposure from mercury- contaminated seafood, the state of California has done very little to protect non-English-speaking residents from the health threat. Many prominent health and environmental groups petitioned the state's Department of Health Services in December, 2002, asking it to distribute widely, among other things, mercury warning information in multiple languages to California residents, but it declined.
California's public-health agencies have the goal of protecting Californians' health and they need to begin taking action on this critical environmental justice issue now, or we will suffer the health consequences later. Mercury warning signs in multiple languages are one simple way for government agencies and seafood retailers to help educate all consumers about the threats of mercury in seafood.
The state of California, along with grocers and restaurateurs, need to step up to the plate and begin to take action to protect non-English-speaking communities from the toxic effects of mercury-contaminated seafood. The alternative -- paying for costly health treatments and special education for brain-damaged children -- absolutely should not be an option. Posting signs or labeling toxic fish in multiple languages is an affordable, simple and ethical thing to do to protect the health of all Californians.
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