On May 10, in a front-page lead story headlined “Taiji locals test high for mercury,” The Japan Times reported the results of tests by the National Institute of Minamata Disease (NIMD) that found “extremely high methyl-mercury (MeHg) concentrations in the hair of some residents of Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, where people have a tradition of eating whale and dolphin.”<more…>

Tokyo (PRWEB) May 10, 2010 — Japan’s Suigin Iranai (“No More Mercury Poisoning”) Campaign today responded to the National Institute for Minamata Disease’s May 9 press conference stating that no significant health effects were observed despite high mercury levels in Taiji, Wakayama residents.

BACKGROUND
The National Institute for Minamata Disease (NIMD) held a press conference in Taiji, Wakayama on May 9, 2010 to announce the results of its health tests on nearly 200 Taiji citizens who showed high levels of mercury in hair tests conducted last year. Taiji has recently become a target of international criticism and concern due to its continuing mass slaughter and consumption of mercury contaminated dolphins and pilot whales.
Read more

Regarding the May 10 article “Most Taiji residents rest easy, refuse to change diet”: I am dismayed that the Japanese media’s coverage of mercury levels detected in the citizens of Taiji (Wakayama Prefecture) has not included several important points about mercury testing and the effects of toxicity, particularly for women and children.

First, the effects of mercury toxicity are most apparent and most devastating in the pre- and perinatal period — when the nervous system is still developing. Certainly, this was the case in the Minamata cases of the 1950s. A 2007 study comparing levels of maternal-hair mercury and infant IQ in New Zealand and the Faroe Islands showed that every part per million of mercury correlated with a decrease of 0.18 point in IQ. The levels of mercury reported in the hair of Taiji women are four times Japan’s national average.
read more here

Following the screening of “The Cove”, a symposium will be held to discuss the methods of the filming of the documentary,
dolphin hunts and whaling and the screening of the documentary in theaters.
Panel: Mori Tatsuya (writer, director of “A,” the documentary about Aum Shinrikyo)
Watai Takeharu (video journalist who reported on the Iraq war)
Sakano Masato (photographer/director. Dolphin expert)
Suzuki Kunio (political activist, founder of the neo-right wing organization, Issuikai)
Moderator: Shinoda Hiroyuki (magazine editor)

for more information in Japanese, click here

National Institute for Minamata Disease

(Background)

An investigation into the Methyl Mercury concentration levels in hair samples was performed at the request of Taiji-cho, Higashimuro-Gun, Wakayama.

(Subject of Investigation and Method)

1. Inquiry to the consumption of methyl mercury

Of the Taiji residents (population 3,536; 1,600 males, 1926 females, as of July 2009), in the summer study between June=Aug. 2009, 1017 residents, and in the winter study in Feb. 2010, 372 residents had hair samples tested for mercury concentrations. (252 overlapping subjects, for a total of 1137 residents tested) Subjects tested were asked to complete a voluntary survey with respect to the amount of and kinds of fish consumed.

1. Study on the effects on Health

Of the subjects studied in the summer study, 182 who had relatively high mercury concentrations (105 males, 77 females), were administered a standard two-point discrimination test and upper limb functionality exercise tests by neurological specialists between July and November 2009 and in January 2010.

Results

1. Methyl Mercury Concentration Study
2. Summer study results of mercury concentration in hair samples of subjects (from smallest to largest) was on average 11.0ppm for males (0.74ppm~139ppm), and 6.63ppm for females (0.61ppm~79.9ppm), compared to 14 other regions of Japan, the average was (from smallest to largest, 2.47ppm in males (0.10ppm~40.6ppm), and 1.64ppm for women (0.01ppm~25.8ppm).
3. Summer study results showed 3.1%, 32 subjects (26 male, 6 female) whose mercury levels exceeded WHO’s 50ppm lower limit for neurological symptoms.
4. Winter study results of mercury concentration averages showed males at 11.2ppm, females at 6.46ppm, an insignificant difference compared to the summer study. Both the summer and winter studies combined, subjects with over 50ppm equaled 3.8%, for a total of 43 subjects. Some subjects in the winter report overlapped in the summer study and it can be said that there was an increase in the mercury concentrations in the hair samples.
5. There is a correlation between eating some types of whale meat and mercury concentration in hair samples.

2) Study on Health Effects

1) In this study, it could not be proven that there was a case for mercury poisoning.

2) From the analysis of upper limb functional movement, “upper limb involuntary functionality” (tremors) which had been recognized in many Taiji  residents who took the test, has low possibility of being a pathological condition.

3) In neurological testing, a correlation is recognized between the decline or loss of the Achilles tendon reflex and mercury concentrations in hair samples. Compared to the residents from K cho, Ooshima-gun, Kagoshima Prefecture, there was an insignificant possibility of the effects of mercury on the tested Taiji-cho residents as the decline or loss of the Achilles tendon reflex was low .

(Further Investigation)

While the results from this study did not show the health affects of methyl mercury in Taiji residents, because of the extremely high concentrations of mercury in hairs samples, further testing is necessary. From 2010 on, in addition to further mercury concentration hair samples and neurological tests, testing on the effects on children and circulatory systems will be carried out by the National Institute for Minamata Disease. Also, for objective assessment for sensory disorders, the possibility of the use of magnetoencephalo meteres will be recommended. This data was collected for the continuing research for Taiji-cho Residents.

- See the Suigin Iranai Campaign’s Response Here -

By JAY ALABASTER
The Associated Press
May 10, 2010

TAIJI, Japan – Residents of the dolphin-hunting village depicted in Oscar documentary “The Cove” have dangerously high mercury levels, likely because of their fondness for dolphin and whale meat, a government lab said Sunday.

The levels of mercury detected in Taiji residents were above the national average, but follow-up tests have found no ill effects, according to the National Institute for Minamata Disease. The tests were done on hair samples from 1,137 volunteers of the town’s roughly 3,500 residents.

“The results suggest there is a connection between hair mercury levels and eating cetaceans,” Director Koji Okamoto told reporters at town hall.

Mercury accumulates up the food chain, so large predators such as dolphins, tuna and swordfish tend to have the highest levels. The latest studies published by the Japanese government show that meat from bottlenose dolphins had about 1,000 times the mercury content of that from sardines.

Fetuses and small children are particularly vulnerable to mercury, which affects the development of the nervous system. The Health Ministry recommends that pregnant women eat at most 2.8 ounces (80 grams) of bottlenose dolphin per two months.

Environmentalists have long protested Taiji’s dolphin slaughter and Japan’s whaling activities, and have adopted the mercury issue as part of their cause.

“If you’re eating dolphin meat, you’re eating poison, and if you’re eating a lot of dolphin meat, you’re eating a lot of poison,” said Louis Psihoyos, director of “The Cove,” which won an Academy Award earlier this year. He spoke to the AP by phone from Los Angeles.

Taiji had been considering adding a mercury test to its standard set of health checks for several years. The town government last year contacted the institute, which agreed to perform and pay for mercury tests as part of its research, according to Yoshio Kaino, a Taiji official who oversaw the program.

Various tests were done from June of last year through February. On Sunday, a town hall meeting was held to explain the results, and about 100 Taiji residents who attended were told that there was no need for most of them to change their diet, although future tests are necessary.

Individuals with the highest levels were advised to cut back on large fish and sea mammals. Although it can damage the nervous system permanently, mercury naturally fades from the body over time, halving about every 70 days. A person could flush most of it from their system by completely cutting it out for a year.

At lunch after the town hall meeting, council chief Katsutoshi Mihara rejoiced as he carefully dipped raw slices of a striped dolphin into soy sauce.

“This may seem nonchalant, but I have absolutely no concerns, and I want to be able keep my lifestyle,” he said.

As served at “Moby Dick,” a hotel run by the local government, the red and pink dolphin sashimi was chewy and faintly fishy, its mammalian consistency more like meat than fish.

Despite the high mercury levels found in the Taiji tests, institute officials said neurological tests on the 182 citizens who wanted them found no problems. Follow-up tests are planned by March of next year, with outside experts possibly invited, and a separte study is under way to track mercury levels in the local catch.

At a presentation for the press on Sunday afternoon, many reporters questioned how there could be no health effects despite such high mercury levels, with some challenging the competency of the lab.

Joanna Tempowski, a scientist who works on chemical safety at the World Health Organization in Switzerland, said the Minamata institute was a respected institution that was trusted to provide technical assistance. Without seeing the Taiji results, she said that some damage from mercury might not appear immediately.

“At some point in the future they might start to show health effects,” she said.

Mercury poisoning is a sensitive topic in Japan, where a disorder now called Minamata Disease was linked to a chemical company that dumped tons of mercury compounds on the southern island of Kyushu.

The disease causes spasms, sensory loss and birth defects and can be fatal. The pollution continued for years after it was discovered, and Minamata disease became an international symbol of environmental damage and corporate corruption.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.

The following are the results of certified and documented tests of Total Mercury (T-Hg) found in random samples of dolphin meat purchased from supermarkets in Taiji and Shingu, Wakayama Prefecture, in 2006-2008.

Hideki Moronuki, deputy director of the Far Seas Fishery Division of the Fisheries Agency, seems proud of his body’s high mercury level due to him having “eaten so much fish.” BOYD HARNELL PHOTO

The test system used is known as Cold Vapor Atomic Absorption Spectrometry.<more..>

Toxic Chemicals in Whale and Dolphin Meat in Japan Health Consequences for Japanese Consumers

Some 18-thousand Dall’s porpoise are killed each year off Northern Japan. Permits to kill some three thousand dolphins and small whales off the main island of Honshu are in effect. Most of the dolphins taken are slaughtered for meat. An increasing number are taken into captivity and shipped to oceanaria, mostly in Asia. <More..>