The Minnesota Department of Health will use a $1.4 million federal grant in an effort to reduce mercury exposure in young women living along Lake Superior's North Shore, where tests have found unsafe levels of the metal in newborns.
The grant, announced Thursday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), will be used to test about 500 women of child-bearing age for blood mercury levels, and to develop a series of questions about their fish consumption -- the likeliest source of mercury.
State health officials will work with health care providers at three Sawtooth Mountain Clinics, in Grand Portage, Grand Marais and Tofte, to recruit volunteers for the study and to design a questionnaire that could eventually become part of standard medical screenings.
The grant follows a 2011 study which found that 8 percent of newborns tested in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan had mercury concentrations in their blood that exceeded federal safety standards. In Minnesota, the rate was even higher -- 10 percent.
Researchers said that many long-lived fish in the Lake Superior basin's lakes and stream contain high levels of mercury -- and the region is also home to a large number of people who eat the fish they catch.
Mercury can damage the brain and nervous system development in fetuses and babies. At high levels, it has been shown to affect memory, attention and language. As a result, the EPA has established a health standard for infants and women of child-bearing age of 5.8 millionths of a gram per liter of blood. Concentrations above that are considered unhealthy, though not necessarily resulting in neurological problems.
Eat the right fish
In addition, Minnesota has fish consumption advisories, particularly for children and young women who are pregnant or might become pregnant. But the results of the earlier study show that for many people, advisories are not enough.
