April 24, 2007

High-quality food helps reduce toxins in the food chain

New findings published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences will allow scientists to predict the conditions under which freshwater fish are likely to carry high mercury levels. A new study led by Roxanne Karimi, a graduate student in the Dartmouth Toxic Metals Research Program, shows that animals fed nutritious, high-quality food end up with much lower concentrations of toxic methylmercury in their tissues. The result suggests ways in which methylmercury—a neurotoxin that can accumulate to hazardous levels—can be slowed in its passage up the food chain to fish. MORE

Abstract: Stoichiometric controls of mercury dilution by growth

Contact: Roxanne Karimi