Fishy (and Poisonous) Food

Sam Roe and Michael Hawthorne have a must-read story in today's Chicago Tribune. "Toxic Risk on your Plate" reveals that fish routinely sold in supermarkets and specialty food stores are contaminated with toxic amounts of mercury. The Tribune independently tested tuna, swordfish, orange roughy, grouper and other seafood sold in stories and found that they contained mercury levels that violate food safety rules. The scariest part of the story is that the U.S. government does not inspect seafood for mercury and rarely tests for it. Roe and Hawthorne report that the Tribune tested more samples of some kinds of fish than the government has in the past 25 years. The Web package that goes with this story is also excellent, including a calculator that allows readers to figure out how much fish they can safely eat.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/broadband/chi-mercury-htmlstory,1,3096866.htmlstory?coll=chi-news-hed