Whalemeat in Japanese school lunches found toxic - Reuters

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Whalemeat in Japanese school lunches found toxic
01 Aug 2007 10:11:41 GMT
Source: Reuters

TOKYO, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Whalemeat served in school lunches
in an area of rural Japan are contaminated with alarming levels
of mercury, a local assemblyman said on Wednesday, calling for
a halt in plans for the meat to be shipped to schools nationwide.

Hisato Ryono, a assemblyman in Taiji, a historic whaling town
some 450 km (280 miles) west of Tokyo, said two samples of
short-finned pilot whale had mercury levels 10 to 16 times more
than advised by the Health Ministry.

The samples, bought from two local supermarkets, also had
10-12 times more methyl mercury than advised levels, he said.

Ryono and a fellow assemblyman conducted tests after local
authorities ignored their calls to have the whalemeat
inspected before it was served in school lunches in the town's
kindergartens and elementary and junior high schools.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/T63591.htm

[Dead_Parrot]

1. ...

:rofl: :nopity:

[xchrom]

2. payback. n/t

[JudyM]

16. Yeah (smiling). How ironic that industrial pollution can serve a good purpose. n/t

[Kolesar]

3. Needs a recommendation ... eom

[Nihil]

6. Done!

And a quick :woohoo: for the revenge of the whales!

[baldguy]

4. How do animals living in the open ocean

get contaminated with mercury?

[Eugene]

10. Mercury from contaminated fish accumulates in the predators that eat them.

This is a known problem in longer-lived top-level predators like tuna.

A brief explanation Discover Magazine...

Our Preferred Poison

-snip-

Mercury is also a by-product of many industrial processes.
In the United States coal-fired power plants alone pump
about 50 tons of it into the air each year. That mercury
rains out of the sky into oceans, lakes, rivers, and streams,
where it becomes concentrated in the flesh of fish,
shellfish, seals, and whales.

-snip-

http://discovermagazine.com/2005/mar/our-preferred-poison

[Kolesar]

11. The seafood restaurant industry in Florida led a campaign to eliminate trash-burning plants

The trash burning plants were found to be the major source of mercury in the fish that was being harvested in the state. The restaurant owners realized that stories of mercury in the food that they were serving would be devastating to their businesses.

EPA Chief Carol Browner issued regulations for extreme mercury reductions from coal fired generators in her last month(s) in office. The bush* administration removed those restrictions and allowed the electricity companies to emit at a level that was equal to what a sulfur-scrubber would already take out.

The bush ruling destroyed the business plan of several environmental engineering firms.

[NNadir]

17. The chief source of mercury in the environment is dangerous fossil fuel waste.

http://pubs.acs.org/hotartcl/est/98/apr/mer.html

This paper dates from 1998, before the rise of CFL bulbs. It is almost certainly true that the CFL bulbs release far less mercury than would have been released by burning coal.

I knew the CFLs contained mercury, but I installed them everywhere in my home almost as soon as they were commercially available.

Although the "renewable" technology of burning garbage releases some mercury, it is not as large a source of mercury as is coal fired power plants.

[CGowen]

12. Japan had many problems with mercury

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamata_disease

Minamata disease (水俣病, Minamata-byō?), sometimes referred to as Chisso-Minamata disease (窒素水俣病, Chisso-Minamata-byō?), is a neurological syndrome caused by severe mercury poisoning. Symptoms include ataxia, numbness in the hands and feet, general muscle weakness, narrowing of the field of vision and damage to hearing and speech. In extreme cases, insanity, paralysis, coma and death follow within weeks of the onset of symptoms. A congenital form of the disease can also affect fetuses in the womb.

Minamata disease was first discovered in Minamata city in Kumamoto prefecture, Japan in 1956. It was caused by the release of methyl mercury in the industrial wastewater from the Chisso Corporation's chemical factory, which continued from 1932 to 1968. This highly toxic chemical bioaccumulated in shellfish and fish in Minamata Bay and the Shiranui Sea, which when eaten by the local populace resulted in mercury poisoning. While cat, dog, pig and human deaths continued over more than 30 years, the government and company did little to prevent the pollution.

As of March 2001, 2,265 victims had been officially recognised (1,784 of whom had died)<1> and over 10,000 had received financial compensation from Chisso.<2> Lawsuits and claims for compensation continue to this day.

.-...............

[GliderGuider]

5. Eating whales isn't sustainable anyway. They should be switching to to baby seals.

I hear there's lots of meat left on the ice, and they make the cutest sandwiches!

[Nihil]

7. Nah ... the Canadians have locked up that market ...

"The Seal Club" ... not so much a meeting place but more of a business ...
:grr:

[YankeyMCC]

8. Another case of which issue to be more alarmed at

the fact that pollutants like Mercury are getting into the food chain of the whales or the continued whale hunting by the Japanese.

[Nihil]

19. I'd say it was the whale-hunting ...

... simply because the mercury obviously didn't kill the whale before
the Japanese did so it would be the less damaging option for the whale.

Besides which, if the Japanese develop a taste for mercury-flavoured whale
then maybe we can persuade them to stick to mercury-flavoured fish or
mercury-flavoured cat (or mercury-flavoured child?) ... frankly anything
that would stop the bastards hunting whales is a good move in my book.

:grr:

[formercia]

9. Mercury never goes away

It's an Element and cannot be destroyed. It just builds up in the food chain and since people and whales are at the top of the chain, we get the highest load.
http://www.mercuryexposure.org/index.php?article_id=231

People don't know about deadly mercury poisoning
by Karen Nakamura


A lovely Japanese girl about eight smiles into the camera, her eyes griping the viewer. When, normally, the camera would pull back, moment over, it continues instead. The viewer suddenly realizes the girl's face hasn't moved a muscle. It becomes evidnet the child is drooling down her tilted chin. The mother wipes her daughter's chin but there's no reaction. Mercury poisoning had destroyed the girl's brain. Reports have floated around that the Florida Everglades have been polluted with, among other things, mercury. From the relative lack of interest, except in mercury dental filings, it appears few in the Uited States care, or more likely, don't understand the magnitude of the problem. Mercury poisoning is not funny and its discovery in our enviornment is growing.

Let's examine an incident that took place in Japan in the early 1970's. Some may remember the Minemata mercury poisoning incident. Those who don't, need to be aware. Our sweet little girl wa from Minemata.

Minemata is a picturesque fishing village. In the late '60's and early '70's, townspeople observed a large number of cats committing suicide by climbing a high cliff and jumping off. In the meantime, the company doctor at the Chisso plant in town noticed workers coming down with unusual symptoms. Some had developed goiters, (enlargments of the thyroid gland around the neck). Others, lost control of their motor functions and became spastics. Some could no longer function mentally. Others had severe diarrhea or hemorrhaging. Those suffering from multiple complications were basket cases, often moaning in pain and despair for months, years, night and day, without end.

The doctor found large amounts of mercury in his patient's blood. Turning to the company waste engineer, he asked if the mercury the company used in manufacturing might be responsible. The engineer, Dr. Jun Ui, began investigating. What he found was mercury releases directly into the bay from Chisso drainage pipes. The mercury then worked itself into the food chain and into the fish. Villagers ate the fish including those suicidal cats.


--snip--

[hatrack]

13. You'd think that, of all people on the planet, the Japanese would know about mercury

But I guess protecting schoolkids from contaminated food doesn't matter when compared with keeping a dying industry alive.

[eppur_se_muova]

15. Google "Minimata Disease" to see details ...

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=minimata+disease&btnG=Google+Search

[IDemo]

14. And I thought the canned peas were bad n/t

[Vogon_Glory]

18. Maybe This Will Help Corrode Japanese Whaling Stand

Maybe more alarmed Japanese officials like councilman Ryono will finally help turn the tide of Japanese public opinion against whaling and the whaling industry--that whale meat is contaminated with industrial pollutants and that contrary to decades of Japanese whaling industry propaganda, there is no real use for whaling products anymore. Hopefully, similar (and truthful) reports about the level of toxins in whale meat will help put an end to Japanese whaling where many environmentalist protests have failed.

[GliderGuider]

20. I imagine the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is having mixed reactions to this news

On one hand it may stop Japanese whaling, on the other hand we've poisoned a fellow species.

Christ.

[Nihil]

21. Look at it this way:

"Cloud" + "Silver lining"
:shrug:

"We" have been poisoning our fellow species for decades.
"We" have been exterminating our fellow species for centuries.
"We" have now managed to poison our own species as a byproduct
of the attempted extermination and it is only *this* that has
closed the loop for some people.

The only smart thing to do is stop whaling then stop dumping mercury.

The short term benefit will be from the cessation of whaling.
This has the potentially beneficial side-effect of stopping the
subset of humans (="sub-humans"? :evilgrin: ) who eat whale flesh
from being poisoned.

The medium term benefit will be from the cessation of mercury dumping.
It doesn't remove the mercury already dumped but prevents the problem
getting worse and reduces the human poisoning of other creatures.

The long term benefit is that the bastards who made a living from
killing whales (and poisoning their nation's children) will go out
of business (preferably starving to death in the process) and so
another one of the many black marks against humanity is redeemed.

But hey, I'm an optimist today ... tomorrow I'll probably accept that
the accountants will have traded the insurance claims for poisoned kids
against the income received in government subsidies and decided that
there is still a business case to continue killing sentient creatures
and poisoning small humans for money.