Mercury: “So - What Fish Can We Eat?”

The Toxic Metals Research Program at Dartmouth is studying the movement of metals such as mercury through the aquatic food web and into the fish people eat. One focus of our translation activities is supporting state agencies in disseminating fish consumption advice. In 2005 we conducted a survey of grocery store shoppers that suggested that audiences play an active role in processing risk messages on fish consumption. Questions raised by this survey led us to conduct a more detailed analysis of audience response to fish consumption advice. We chose to test responses to supermarket fish advisory posters because of legislative efforts in several nearby states to require grocery stores to display mercury warnings at fish counters. Our partners in several of these states supplied their posters for us to test. We also agreed to share findings with our partners at New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, as part of an Environmental Protection Agency grant that will include updating of the state’s fish advisory brochure for women of childbearing age.

In November, Nancy Serrell and Dartmouth Toxic Metals Program ecologist Celia Chen were funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to convene an invitational workshop to develop a research and bio-monitoring agenda for the Northeast on mercury, linking the lessons and paradigms from uplands research to marine systems and human health. The planning committee included Jeri Weiss, Regional Mercury Coordinator from EPA Region I; Dave Evers, Executive Director of the Biodiversity Institute; and Kathy Fallon Lambert, president of Ecologic: Analysis and Communications, a consultancy. The workshop, titled, “Fate and Bioavailability of Mercury in Aquatic Ecosystems and Effects on Human Exposure,” included over 40 scientists and policymakers. Expected outcomes of the workshop are a white paper.