Mercury Levels in Humans and Fish Around the World Regularly Exceed Health Advisory Levels

Gorham, Maine — A new scientific report, Global Mercury Hotspots, finds that humans and marine ecosystems around the world are contaminated with mercury and that mercury levels in humans and fish regularly exceed health advisory guidelines. The report, a collaboration between IPEN,  a global network of public interest organizations, and the scientific research team of Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI), highlights the urgent need for an overall reduction in mercury emissions.

The report,“brings together new data on mercury concentrations in fish and human hair samples and identifies, for the first time, a set of global biological hot spots where elevated levels of mercury are sufficient to pose serious threats to both ecosystems and human health,” said David C. Evers, Ph.D., BRI’s executive director and chief scientist.

Government delegates will convene next week in Geneva in their final negotiating session to establish an international mercury treaty – the first global treaty on the environment in more than a decade by the United Nations Environment Programme.