石巻市が牡鹿地区住民を対象に頒布したミンククジラの生肉が原因とみられる食中毒問題で、市は２４日、鯨肉の回収を始めた。同日も下痢や嘔吐（おうと）を訴え診察を受ける住民が出て、発症者数は計３５人となった。

記事：毎日新聞　2010年9月25日　地方版

The city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture started a recall of Minke whale meat products on September 24 after dozens of people reported food poisoning symptoms from the meat. About 35 people are confirmed to have suffered from diarrhea and nausea.

On September 21 the city sold and distributed about 750 kilos of the meat to 375 households who requested it. People began reporting food poisoning symptoms the following day.

By the evening of September 24, the city has recovered meat from 238 households, including 63 that claimed symptoms, and is urgently seeking the products from other households. the city will return the entire amount paid by residents, which came to JPY2.23 million.

Mainichi Shimbun, September 25

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.
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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

Movie Screening and Talk Session

This will be a double showing of The Cove and include discussion panels on mercury in seafood and sea life health vs. public health.

March 30th, 2010

7pm-10pm

Admission: Free Please go here for application
Sponsored and supported by Elsa Nature Conservancy, CIRCLET、 DRUMAGIK、PangeaSeed、Choices for Tomorrow (CFT)

Already nominated for an Oscar, the environmental thriller THE COVE brings to light the machinations of the Japanese dolphin hunters. More than 2,000 dolphins are brutally killed each year in the fishing village of Taiji. In protest of this crime against marine mammals, OceanCare and the Save Japan Dolphins Coalition have also received support from the music industry.

“I will never be able to rid my mind of those horrific pictures,” recalls musician and composer Rick Laine. “It was back in 1993 when I first saw films on how dolphins are butchered in Japan and I was appalled.” The native Englishman then worked his way through the negative emotions experienced through that event by writing the song “Cruel Heart.”

Together with the Swiss music producer Hape Schuwey, Laine revised the catchy song and donated it to OceanCare for its campaign against dolphin drives. The Swiss organization then produced a video clip to the song which includes some exclusive film material of wild dolphins which it received as a donation from the renowned American video artist, Diana Thater.
Written and composed by Rick Laine, featuring M.G. Grace, “Cruel Heart” can be procured as a song and ring tone over iTunes. The proceeds flow completely into the campaign against the Japanese dolphin drive.

For further information:

Download of „Cruel Heart“ on iTunes
Video clip on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlVy8y3Fy_A
More on campaign against dolphin drives

Practicing physician and pioneer in functional medicine
Posted: February 20, 2010 07:17 AM

(Excerpt)
Risk Increases with Dose

Harvey Clewell from the ENVIRON Health Sciences Institute, Ruston, Louisiana, reviewed the epidemiologic studies from the Seychelles and Faroe islands. He showed that your risk of toxicity increases with higher doses of mercury.

Now, there are different types of mercury. Nearly all human exposures to one type, methylmercury, come from fish.

In the Seychelle Islands, there seemed be little effect on kids from mercury; however their fish consumption was predominately from low-risk small reef fish that don’t contain much mercury.

On the other hand, in the Faroe Islands people eat whale blubber, which contains high levels of mercury — over three parts per million. There, high levels of mercury were found in umbilical cord blood and correlated with reduced performance in neurologic testing in 917 mother-infant pairs.

The health effects from methyl mercury upon infants and children depend on the dose. Severe symptoms start with exposure to doses of 100 mcg/kg/day, mild symptoms with more than 10 mcg/kg/day, and sub-clinical symptoms with less than 1 mcg/kg/day. These symptoms include late development in walking and talking and decreased performance on neurological tests.

click here for full article

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/mercury-how-to-get-this-l_b_469358.html

Levels of mercury in hair samples of residents of Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, which is known for customarily eating small whales caught by coastal whaling, are about 10 times the average in Japan, possibly due to consumption of whale meat with high concentration of mercury, one of researchers who conducted the survey said Thursday.

Hair samples were collected from 30 men and 20 women living in the whaling town with a population of about 3,400 through local collaborators between December 2007 and July 2008 for testing, Tetsuya Endo, an associate professor at Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, said.

The survey showed the average total mercury levels in the men’s and women’s hair samples were 21.6 parts per million and 11.9 ppm, respectively, while the levels of average Japanese men and women are 2.55 ppm and 1.43 ppm, he said.

click here for the complete article