$1.6 Million For Projects On Mercury Exposure & Fish Consumption

Oct 4: U.S. EPA announced two Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) grants totaling almost $1.6 million for projects to protect women and children from mercury exposure through Great Lakes fish consumption. The funding will be used to improve health screening and to develop more effective fish consumption advisories. 

 

    The University of Illinois at Chicago will receive $192,258 for a project to recruit Great Lakes area health care providers and their pregnant patients to participate in a study evaluating the link between fish consumption and mercury levels in blood. The project will determine whether a single question about fish consumption is an effective screening tool to predict which women are likely to have elevated mercury levels and a related increase in potential health risks to their children. Data will also be analyzed to determine whether recreational anglers and tribal members have higher levels of mercury in their blood than the general population. 

 

    A second, major grant to the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) for $1.4 million will fund a project to improve health screening and to develop more effective fish consumption advisories in the Lake Superior Basin. A previous EPA-funded study found that nearly one in 10 infants in the basin had mercury levels higher than those recommended as safe by EPA. The Grand Portage Chippewa Tribe and the Sawtooth Mountain Clinics in Grand Portage and Grand Marais, Minnesota will participate in the MDH project. Physicians affiliated with the clinics will survey consenting female patients of childbearing age about fish consumption and test blood mercury levels. Patients will also be counseled to promote safe fish consumption choices. 

    Access a release from EPA and link to more information on GLRI and the grants (click here).

 

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