New York

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.
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