According to the EPA, mercury is a neurotoxin:
For fetuses, infants, and children, the primary health effect of methylmercury is impaired neurological development... Impacts on cognitive thinking, memory, attention, language, and fine motor and visual spatial skills have been seen in children exposed to methylmercury in the womb...
In addition to the subtle impairments noted above, symptoms of methylmercury poisoning may include; impairment of the peripheral vision; disturbances in sensations ("pins and needles" feelings, usually in the hands, feet, and around the mouth); lack of coordination of movements; impairment of speech, hearing, walking; and muscle weakness.
So obviously the stuff is bad. The quote above applies to methylmercury - so one question to ask is whether the mercury found in HFCS was methylmercury vs. another form of mercury. The report answers: we don't know. However, the report DOES address another question: If someone eats 1 gram of HFCS, how many micrograms of mercury would they ingest?
In the Environmental Health report, Dufault et al. found among 20 samples of commercial HFCS detectable levels of total "mercury ranging from below a detection limit of 0.005 to 0.570 micrograms mercury per gram of high fructose corn syrup." Nine of the samples had measurable total mercury.
Using the USDA's estimate of 50 grams of average consumption HFCS per day, one might roughly estimate potential total mercury ingestion via HFCS of up to 28.5ug total mercury/day (50 grams HFCS X 0.570 ug/g). Using these same assumptions, high-end HFCS consumers potentially could have much higher total mercury ingestion.
It is difficult to know to what to compare this figure. The EPA has established a "reference dose," or maximum recommended dietary intake of methylmercury. Methylmercury is the form typically found in fish and seafood. The reference dose of 0.1 ug/kg/day applies to women of childbearing age and young children, who are thought to be the most at risk from methylmercury exposure. For the "average" 55 kg [121 lb] American woman, this would translate into no more than 5.5ug/day of methylmercury.
There is no reference dose for total mercury. The mercury found in HFCS may be a different form of mercury than the methylmercury typically found in fish (we just don't know), but it poses a risk just the same. Mercury in any form can be toxic to the developing brain.
So how does this play out in a food like Coca-Cola? I checked Coca-Cola's nutrition info and found that 8 fl oz of Coke contains 27g of carbs - which I assume means 27g of HFCS. At its worst - with .570 micrograms per gram - those 8 oz of Coca-Cola could contain 15.39 micrograms of mercury.
However, the tests showed that the sample of Coca-Cola Classic tested "only" contained 62 ppt mercury - which I believe (if my math is right) means that an 8 oz serving contains 0.015 micrograms of mercury. But who drinks 8 oz. of Coca-Cola? McDonalds sells 42 oz of it at a time! With 62 ppt mercury, 42 oz of Coca Cola contain 0.08 micrograms of total mercury.
Of course, as the report points out, heavy users of fast food and processed food probably wouldn't stop with a Coke. The problem with HFCS is its ubiquity - salad dressings, ketchup, bread, soda, candy, yogurts, almost ANYTHING can have HFCS.
Many of these products are specifically marketed to groups vulnerable to mercury. Soft drinks, fruit juices, and other junk food are successfully marketed to children not only through Internet and television advertising, but also in school vending machine and cafeteria options. People who rely on food stamps or who live in lower socioeconomic neighborhoods are also a special target for junk food manufacturers, because they offer the most accessible and often least expensive calories in the grocery store.
Given the FDA's silence on the issue, we set out to do the nation's first public testing of national food brands that use HFCS for the presence of mercury.
We scouted supermarket shelves, looking both for manufactured foods and beverages marketed heavily to children as well as for products with HFCS as the first or second labeled ingredient. While manufacturers are not required to list the exact HFCS (or any other ingredient's) composition in food, they do need to list them in order of volume.
We tested products from some of America's leading food companies: Kraft, Hershey's, Hunt's, Smucker's, General Mills, Coca-Cola and so on.
What else did the food community have to say about it? One person pointed out that bees are often fed HFCS - could mercury be responsible for colony collapse disorder, the phenomenon killing off our bees at a fast rate? Somebody else brought up the potential link between mercury and autism - and the success some autistic children have had with special diets.
While one person chimed in that no level of mercury is acceptable (I agree!) somebody else built on that point to say that because there are so many ways people are exposed to mercury (fish, toys, thermometers, etc), adding one more source - particularly when it's totally avoidable as it is in this case - is "unconscionable."
The main sentiment expressed in most of the emails was absolute, utter frustration that we are exposed to mercury in so many different ways, and all to profit a small group of greedy assholes we've never met - and that the government is willing to sell permits to pollute in many cases, instead of simply banning activity that is so clearly harmful to the American people and our environment. |
