The results of the largest ever national mercury hair sampling have just been released and they ARE SHOCKING: one out of five women of childbearing age has unsafe levels of mercury in her body. If you are a woman and pregnant, or have sisters or daughters in this situation, stop or have them stop eating all fish products immediately. You or they quite likely need to do a heavy metal detoxification. The effects of mercury on a human fetus are potentially devastating, including neurological damage and gross deformity. I am not exaggerating. I have seen the heartrending photographs the photojournalist Eugene Smith took of the human consequences of industrial mercury poisoning in the local Minamata, Japan, water supply in the 1970s. After thirty years, the images of these Japanese mothers' shattered children still haunt my memory. Do not let this happen to you and your children!

The duplicity of the government and fish-product and other industries in maintaining the status quo of high mercury contamination throughout the environment is criminal and profit-motivated, so citizens are on their own to protect themselves. The Sierra Club has posted the test results at:

http://www.sierraclub.org/mercury/

Mac McKinney