The declaration focuses on five key findings

• The health risks posed by mercury-contaminated fish warrant a general warning to the public—especially children and women of childbearing age—to be careful about how much and which fish they eat.
•  Methylmercury levels in fish-eating birds and mammals in some parts of the world are reaching toxic levels, which may lead to population declines in these species and possibly in fish as well.
• On average, three times more mercury now falls from the sky than before the Industrial Revolution 200 years ago.
•  Unregulated use of mercury in small-scale gold mining is polluting thousands of sites around the world, posing long-term health risks to an estimated 50 million inhabitants of mining regions and contributing more than 10 percent of the mercury in Earth’s atmosphere attributable to human activities.
•  Little is known about the behavior of mercury in marine ecosystems and methylmercury contamination of marine fishes, the ingestion of which is the primary way most people at all levels of society worldwide are exposed to this highly toxic form of mercury

The declarations other major findings include

• Mercury emissions from developing countries have increased during the last 30 years, offsetting decreases in emissions from developed nations.
•  There is now solid scientific evidence of methylmercury’s toxic health effects, particularly to the human fetus.
•  New evidence indicates that methylmercury exposure may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, particularly in adult men.
•  Increasing mercury concentrations are now being found in a number of fish-eating wildlife species in remote areas.

Dr. Chan says this is both a global issue and a local issue. Dr. Chan is currently working with three aboriginal communities in northern B.C. to document mercury exposure and its health effects. “Some of my research has documented that the presence of even small amounts of mercury can affect the biochemistry of the brain, and possibly slow down the communication between brain cells.”

Mercury is produced primarily from the burning of fossil fuels. It is one of the pollutants that appear at high levels in the North bcause of wind currents and the fact mercury becomes more stable in cold temperatures.