SELENIUM HEALTH BENEFIT VALUES CONFIRM OCEAN FISH CONSUMPTION PREVENTS MERCURY TOXITY  

There has been a lot of progress in our understanding of mercury biochemistry in the past few years. Our group recently completed an EPA sponsored study of the mercury and selenium contents of over 14,000 ocean and freshwater fish samples collected from all over North America. At an EPA sponsored meeting in DC a couple of years ago, the consensus opinion was that seafood consumption during pregnancy is associated with a 4-6 point improvement in child IQ. Since we were already aware that seafood was positively associated with other beneficial maternal and fetal outcomes, the consilience of neurological outcomes in the epidemiological studies is confirming the importance of what we already knew about mercury biochemistry from cell culture and animal studies. We just completed a NOAA funded international round-robin study to compare the selenium analysis capabilities of laboratories. This is important since mercury risks are entirely dependent on the relative amounts of mercury and selenium present in the foods that are being consumed.

Our EPA sponsored work also funded further development of the Health Benefit Value (HBV), the only reliably accurate criteria for assessing risks associated with mercury exposures as well as beneficial effects associated with improved dietary intakes of selenium, long chain omega-3 fatty acids, and other essential nutrients.

Website: http://essp.und.edu/people/bios/ralston.aspx

Fish Issue Fact Sheets: http://net-effects.und.edu/factsheets.aspx