For cold and flu season this year, I was thinking about getting a flu shot. But, I stopped to think about the mercury that the flu vaccine contains.
This got me thinking: why should I worry about a silly flu shot when I eat mercury-containing fish all the time?
How important is it to limit our mercury containing fish intake?Mercury is a natural occurring element, but is also a byproduct of pollution, and can end up in our rivers and oceans. This is how mercury gets into the fish supply, and then into our bodies.
Fish that contain the most mercury are large fish on top of the food chain:
- Tilefish
- Shark
- Swordfish
- King Mackerel
- Bigeye, Albacore, and Yellowfin Tuna
- Orange Roughy
- Marlin
- Grouper
- Bass
- Bluefish
How and Why Mercury Is Toxic
The type of mercury found in fish is called methylmercury and is considered a poison. Of course our bodies can tolerate small amounts of toxic compounds. Our bodies are relatively good at detoxifying as long as you don’t overload the body with toxins. The dangerous part is that mercury stays in the body for quite a while since it is a heavy metal. Mercury poisoning first affects the nervous system and causes changes in temperament. The most sever cases of mercury poisoning can result in brain damage.
Recommendations
The most important thing is for children, pregnant women, or women who may become pregnant to limit their higher mercury fish intake to about six ounces per week, or twelve ounces per week of lower mercury fish and shellfish. This developing body is much more sensitive to heavy metal damage.
By comparison, some flu shots contain a strong dose of mercury, but a different form of mercury called ethylmercury (in the preservative Thimerosal) which your body degrades more quickly. A six ounce serving of light tuna contains about the same amount of mercury as one adult flu shot. So, I may get my flu shot this year, and watch my consumption of white tuna instead. I will still be eating other lower mercury fish!
How about you, do you ever worry about mercury levels?
Resource: FDA Levels of Mercury in Common Fish
It’s for me a method that worked perfectly!
I’m not worried about the mercury in flue shots because I am capable of understanding science and not just sensationalism.
Read the labels.some fish oils are very good with non-mercury composition.Fish is always a best source for keeping one healthy and fit.it puts away many diseases and it is good food for kids brain and intelligence.
That is true, but not true off all brands. Make sure the bottle states that it is mercury free.
They purify the fish oil and filter it so the mercury level in them is negligible.
What about the mercury found in common brands of fish oil supplements? I don’t eat fish, can’t stand the taste. I take fish oil supplements. I always worry about the mercury in those pills. I am guessing it would be a negligible amount if any.
Thanks, Maggie, for this information. I tried to research as best I could about the equivalents. Something to think about: if a woman ate 6.82 mcg of mercury from fish each day (the limit you describe) times seven, that would be 47.74 mcg mercury for the whole week! As I understand, it is what you consume, or intake, over a period of time that makes the difference.
I am not a proponent of the flu shot. Just provoking some thought.
I used to eat about 3-4 cans of tuna a week, but my doctor told me to cut back a little because of the mercury. Now I eat more tilapia and flounder and less tuna to make sure I don’t get too much mercury.
For a while I was involved in some research involving mercury in fish. The presentations at a symposium can be found here: http://www.hawaii-seafood.org/Symposium-Statement/Speakers-Extended/. But the hypothesis is that selenium binds mercury in fish making it harmless to humans. In all fish tested, except mako shark and pilot whale, levels of selenium far exceeded levels of mercury. I live in Hawaii where we consume a lot of fish. A. Lot. And if mercury was the problem it’s claimed to be I think we would see a whole lot more problems here and we don’t. Also,the initial claim that said there was a lot of mercury in fish was based on one study done of an island people that eat whale blubber. Also, pregnant women in Japan and China consume far more fish than American women and we know how their children score on tests vs American children. Connected???
A typical mercury-containing flu shot has 25 micrograms of mercury in a .5ml dose.
Let’s say a typical adult female weighs about 150-pounds or 68.2kg.
Recognizing the limitations of the methyl to ethyl comparison, the EPA’s recommended maximum daily consumption of methyl-mercury from fish is 0.1mcg/kg/day to prevent health effects in the woman.
This 68.2 kg woman should not eat more than 6.82mcg of mercury from fish in a day, but she would be getting 25 mcg of mercury from the vaccine – 4x the EPA limit!
What data we have so far from human and primate studies indicates that, while ethyl-mercury clears the blood faster than methyl-mercury, ethyl-mercury also results in a higher amount of inorganic mercury in the brains of primates compared to primates exposed to comparable amounts of methyl-mercury (Burbacher et al. 2005).
The half-life of inorganic mercury in different parts of the primate brain ranges from 227 to 540 days (Vahter et al. 1994, 1995).