Is mercury a big deal?
People who most need protection from mercury intake are women of child-bearing age and children under the age of three. Mercury is known to cause detrimental and irreversible effects on neurological development in fetuses and young children. This impairment is typically expressed as mild learning and behavioral disorders, although damage can range in severity. For other segments of the population mercury, while always a matter for caution, is not nearly so threatening. In adults it is excretable and has not been found to produce irreversible health effects except in cases of extreme exposure. It is believed that most methyl mercury exposure occurs by eating contaminated seafood.
