{"id":3493,"date":"2012-04-12T12:52:09","date_gmt":"2012-04-12T16:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/?p=3493"},"modified":"2012-04-25T11:37:33","modified_gmt":"2012-04-25T15:37:33","slug":"consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2012\/04\/12\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\/","title":{"rendered":"Consumers Deserve to Know about Seafood Contaminants"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tim<\/a>
Tim Fitzgerald, Scientist and Senior Oceans Policy Specialist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you can choose whether to have tartar sauce with your fish, why not high levels of mercury?<\/p>\n

The Washington Post<\/a> ran a story last week that said fish consumption advisories for pollutants like mercury do more harm than good by discouraging people from eating fish. Tuesday, the newspaper published a letter in response<\/a> from me and Dr. Lynn Goldman, Dean of The George Washington University’s School of Public Health and Health Services and member of EDF\u2019s Board of Trustees.<\/p>\n

Eating seafood is an important part of a healthy diet. However, that does not justify ignoring the fact that some types of fish contain high concentrations of environmental contaminants. Just last week, a new study<\/a> came out that documented significant losses of IQ points from the American population as a result of elevated blood mercury levels (and other environmental contaminants).<\/p>\n

Environmental Defense Fund\u2019s Seafood Selector website<\/a> provides easy-to-digest information about more than 200 types of commonly eaten seafood. This includes advice on the environmental impacts of fishing and fish farming, along with safe consumption levels for each type of fish. In short, we want to help conscientious consumers choose fish that is good for them and the ocean.<\/p>\n

Our health advisories do err on the side of caution, but rightfully so. Many states are battling contamination problems in their waters, and consult with EPA about an appropriate advisory program to protect their local anglers. Academic researchers continue to document negative health effects from mercury at levels lower than previously thought. As a result, there are even some in the scientific community that believe EPA\u2019s reference dose for mercury still isn\u2019t low enough.<\/p>\n

While empowering consumers is an important step, we can\u2019t stop there. We need to address the source of contaminants that can wind up in our seafood. The EPA\u2019s plan<\/a> to crack down on mercury pollution, which primarily comes from the smokestacks at coal-fired power plants, is a step in the right direction<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you can choose whether to have tartar sauce with your fish, why not high levels of mercury? The Washington Post ran a story last week that said fish consumption advisories for pollutants like mercury do more harm than good by discouraging people from eating fish. Tuesday, the newspaper published a letter in response from me and Dr. Lynn Goldman, Dean of the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services and member of EDF\u2019s Board of Trustees.<\/p>\n

Read the full post »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1932,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[378],"tags":[36773,572,8024,72532],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-3493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seafood","tag-contaminants","tag-fish","tag-mercury","tag-seafood"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nConsumers Deserve to Know about Seafood Contaminants - EDFish<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2012\/04\/12\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Consumers Deserve to Know about Seafood Contaminants - EDFish\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you can choose whether to have tartar sauce with your fish, why not high levels of mercury? The Washington Post ran a story last week that said fish consumption advisories for pollutants like mercury do more harm than good by discouraging people from eating fish. Tuesday, the newspaper published a letter in response from me and Dr. Lynn Goldman, Dean of the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services and member of EDF\u2019s Board of Trustees. Read the full post »\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2012\/04\/12\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EDFish\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-04-12T16:52:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-04-25T15:37:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/18\/files\/2012\/04\/Tim_Fitzgerald-sm.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tim Fitzgerald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tim Fitzgerald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2012\\\/04\\\/12\\\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2012\\\/04\\\/12\\\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tim Fitzgerald\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5e872afa78022960c12c2cc5638bbe99\"},\"headline\":\"Consumers Deserve to Know about Seafood Contaminants\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-04-12T16:52:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-04-25T15:37:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2012\\\/04\\\/12\\\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":353,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2012\\\/04\\\/12\\\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/18\\\/files\\\/2012\\\/04\\\/Tim_Fitzgerald-sm.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Contaminants\",\"Fish\",\"Mercury\",\"Seafood\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Seafood\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2012\\\/04\\\/12\\\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2012\\\/04\\\/12\\\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\\\/\",\"name\":\"Consumers Deserve to Know about Seafood Contaminants - EDFish\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2012\\\/04\\\/12\\\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2012\\\/04\\\/12\\\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/18\\\/files\\\/2012\\\/04\\\/Tim_Fitzgerald-sm.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-04-12T16:52:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-04-25T15:37:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5e872afa78022960c12c2cc5638bbe99\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2012\\\/04\\\/12\\\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2012\\\/04\\\/12\\\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2012\\\/04\\\/12\\\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/18\\\/files\\\/2012\\\/04\\\/Tim_Fitzgerald-sm.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/18\\\/files\\\/2012\\\/04\\\/Tim_Fitzgerald-sm.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2012\\\/04\\\/12\\\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Consumers Deserve to Know about Seafood Contaminants\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/\",\"name\":\"EDFish\",\"description\":\"Innovating for healthy oceans\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5e872afa78022960c12c2cc5638bbe99\",\"name\":\"Tim Fitzgerald\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.edf.org\\\/people\\\/timothy-fitzgerald\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/author\\\/tfitzgerald\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Consumers Deserve to Know about Seafood Contaminants - EDFish","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2012\/04\/12\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Consumers Deserve to Know about Seafood Contaminants - EDFish","og_description":"If you can choose whether to have tartar sauce with your fish, why not high levels of mercury? The Washington Post ran a story last week that said fish consumption advisories for pollutants like mercury do more harm than good by discouraging people from eating fish. Tuesday, the newspaper published a letter in response from me and Dr. Lynn Goldman, Dean of the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services and member of EDF\u2019s Board of Trustees. Read the full post »","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2012\/04\/12\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\/","og_site_name":"EDFish","article_published_time":"2012-04-12T16:52:09+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-04-25T15:37:33+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/18\/files\/2012\/04\/Tim_Fitzgerald-sm.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Tim Fitzgerald","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tim Fitzgerald","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2012\/04\/12\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2012\/04\/12\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\/"},"author":{"name":"Tim Fitzgerald","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/#\/schema\/person\/5e872afa78022960c12c2cc5638bbe99"},"headline":"Consumers Deserve to Know about Seafood Contaminants","datePublished":"2012-04-12T16:52:09+00:00","dateModified":"2012-04-25T15:37:33+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2012\/04\/12\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\/"},"wordCount":353,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2012\/04\/12\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/18\/files\/2012\/04\/Tim_Fitzgerald-sm.jpg","keywords":["Contaminants","Fish","Mercury","Seafood"],"articleSection":["Seafood"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2012\/04\/12\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2012\/04\/12\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\/","name":"Consumers Deserve to Know about Seafood Contaminants - EDFish","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2012\/04\/12\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2012\/04\/12\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/18\/files\/2012\/04\/Tim_Fitzgerald-sm.jpg","datePublished":"2012-04-12T16:52:09+00:00","dateModified":"2012-04-25T15:37:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/#\/schema\/person\/5e872afa78022960c12c2cc5638bbe99"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2012\/04\/12\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2012\/04\/12\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2012\/04\/12\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/18\/files\/2012\/04\/Tim_Fitzgerald-sm.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/18\/files\/2012\/04\/Tim_Fitzgerald-sm.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2012\/04\/12\/consumers-deserve-to-know-about-seafood-contaminants\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Consumers Deserve to Know about Seafood Contaminants"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/","name":"EDFish","description":"Innovating for healthy oceans","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/#\/schema\/person\/5e872afa78022960c12c2cc5638bbe99","name":"Tim Fitzgerald","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.edf.org\/people\/timothy-fitzgerald"],"url":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/author\/tfitzgerald\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1932"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3493\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3493"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}