Bee:
For those that do not want to click on it, here it is. For citation
and references please click on the link for the complete presentation
and article credit.
This continues to support the toxicity of mercury at very low levels.
This issue apprently is not understood by people like Peter moran,
David Wright, D.C. Sessions Mark Probert etc. who continually
vigorously debunk these statements and those that support them

Mercury declared a major health concern
Friday, March 7, 2008

A University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) professor has
contributed to an international declaration aimed at drawing attention
to the effects of mercury pollution. It was released last week by the
world's leading mercury scientists.

UNBC Health Sciences professor Laurie Chan has been involved with
mercury research for more than a dozen years and has worked with
aboriginal communities throughout Canada's North to document the human
health effects of mercury contamination, as well as the effects of
other environmental pollutants. Chan was one of 40 scientists
worldwide - and one of only eight Canadians - to contribute to the
international declaration, which presents 33 main findings based on
mercury's atmospheric sources, its effects on wildlife and fisheries,
and health effects.

"The most challenging part of the research is identifying the subtle
effects of even very low levels of mercury in people," says Dr. Chan
who is a BC Leadership Chair in Aboriginal Environmental Health. "Some
of my research has documented that the presence of even small amounts
of mercury can affect the biochemistry of the brain and possibly slow
down the communication between brain cells. The research we're doing
now is quantifying the levels of mercury in people and what are the
subtle effects."

Mercury is produced primarily from the burning of fossil fuels. It is
one of the pollutants that generally appear at high levels in the
North because of predominant wind currents and the fact that mercury
becomes more stable in cold temperatures. The International
Declaration on Mercury Pollution states that three times more mercury
now falls from the sky than before the Industrial Revolution. The
human fetus is particularly at risk, with low levels of mercury
exposure in utero linked to lower intelligence. The increased
concentration of mercury in fish and wildlife also puts aboriginal
people at high risk for mercury exposure. "It is important to
emphasize that not all fish is bad," says Dr. Chan. "Salmon, for
example, have little mercury and eating more fish generally benefits
heart health and brain development."

"This is a global issue and a local issue," says Dr. Chan, who is
currently working with three aboriginal communities in northern BC to
document mercury exposure and its health effects. "The Mercury
Declaration came out of an international conference that attracted
more than
1000 scientists. It gives us a platform to hopefully influence public
policy.