Both the US Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) and the European Food Safety Authority ( EFSA ) have publised respective communiques which warn of the risks that the consumption of these marine products can pose to pregnant women and children.

Researches have found fish containing as much as 3.9 ppm ( dry weight ) of methylmercury in the Persian Gulf and dolphins with more than 2,200 ppm of mercury and 770 of selenium in the Mediterranean. These levels are 1,500 times higher than what is safe for human consumption.

There is also the exacerbating factor that dozens more tonnes are possibly being emitted into the environment without being accounted for, because it is unknown how and where they are emitted: even though the mercury is used and replaced, they are regarded as " lost " tonnes.

In the European Union, chlorine-alkaline plants consume 30% of all the mercury used by the industry, while in the United States this figure is 35%.

The EU has agreed to progressively eliminate these plants, or replace them with modern systems that nor use mercury, by 2007. Indeed, the United States already onlu uses mercury in 10% of its production and in Europe some 40 plants have been closed or converted in the last 15 years.

However, some countries in the EU have asked for an extension of several years to the 2007 deadline, and the industry is trying to prevent its total elimination from taking place until 2020. Meanwhile, in the United States there are no plants to put an end to this dirty technology.

Other major sources of the emission of mercury into the environment are coal-fuelled power plants and waste incinerators. But while in these cases the mercury is more difficult to eliminate or prevent, in the case of chlorine plants there have been systems in place for years that do not  need to use this metal, so this from of pollution is 100% preventable.

Chlorine-alkaline plants using mercury cells in the European Union and the United States:

Links

US Food and Drug Administration ( FDA )

European Commission, Health and Consumer Protection Directorate-General, " Information: Note on Methyl mercury in fish and fichery products ", Brussels, 12 May 2004.

European Commission, " Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control ( IPPC ): Reference Document on Best Available Techniques in the Chlor-Alkali Manufacturing Industry " ( December 2001 ).

Peter Maxson, " Mercury Flows in Europe and the World: The impact of decommissioned chlor-alkali plants " Report by Concorde East/West Sprl for the Directorate General for Environment. ( Brussels European Commission, February 2004 ).

J.M. Pacyna, " Global Mercury Emissions ", 2003; Euro Chlor. " Reduction of Mercury Emissions from the West European Chlor Alkali Industry " June 2001: 4.

European Commission " European Pollutant Emission Register, 2001 ".

" PARCOM Decision 90/3 of 14 June 1990 on Reducing Atmospheric Emissions from Existing Chlor-Alkali Plants ".

European Commission Working Group on Mercury, " Ambient Air Pollution by Mercury ( Hg ) Position Paper " 17 Oct. 2001: 11-25.

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