Pacific Ocean

Billions of tons of metallic mercury are being poured into the Pacific Ocean from over ten thousand coal-fired powerplants primarily in China and India, with the result that mercury levels in some common Pacific fish are rising far beyond safe levels for human or animal consumption. The primary problem is among larger fish, which concentrate the mercury when they eat smaller varieties which are also contaminated. Seaborne bacteria convert metallic mercury that reaches the ocean in polluted rain and wind to methyl mercury, which is absorbed into the cells of any animal–or human–who ingests it. Mercury is a brain poison, in that it kills neurons.read more