A recent study has shown that 64% of babies born in Spain do so with too high levels of mercury. The work has been done analyzing umbilical cord blood from almost 2,000 births in different Spanish regions in the years 2004 to 2008.
The study is truly worrying. He methylmercury, the biological form that mercury takes when it is assimilated by living beings is considered very toxic and increases the possibility of developing problems in the nervous system.
64% of the samples had higher rates than recommended, Asturias being the most marked area, since 75% of the cases were positive with rates higher than 5.8 micrograms per liter of blood. Something is failing in our environmental and food safety systems so that we reach this situation.
Mercury passes into the environment from volcanic eruptions naturally, but today the greatest pollution comes from the industry and, when it reaches the sea, it passes into the food chain, being consumed by humans when eating fish.
Not being biodegradable and accumulating in living beings, animals that live longer and eat others are those with the highest rates of mercury, especially in swordfish, pike and those in the shark family.
I will go deeper into this problem, its causes and how to reduce its impact with dietary measures on another issue, because, although the general public is not aware of this problem, its effects are potentially dangerous.
The real medium and long term effect of this is unknown. exposure to toxic mercury in babies but it is unquestionable that it would be advisable for governments to control pollution much more and alert the population to reduce consumption to ensure that Spanish children are not born with excess mercury.
