With the state’s recent discovery of Walleye fish having increased levels of Mercury at Center Hill Lake, a Tennessee Tech chemistry professor said Mercury is dangerous for humans to consume.
Tech professor of chemistry Hong Zhang (John-g) said mercury is a neurotoxin and could cause some neurological damage. Zhang said that is why folks should heed the state’s precautionary advisory by passing on eating walleye over 19 inches from Center Hill Lake.
“It will attach to the brain tissue and then, because mercury is a heavy metal and then, it can potentially damage some proteins and some tissues in the brain,” Zhang said.
State tests showed walleye over 19 inches contained elevated levels of mercury, which prompted the precautionary advisory. It calls for pregnant women, nursing mothers, and infants to avoid eating walleye from the lake and for others to limit consumption to one meal per month.
“Once it gets to the mothers or pregnant women, and then it can go from the mother to the unborn baby through the cord, connecting the mother and the baby,” Zhang said. “And so then, even though the baby does not eat anything, but still the mercury can go from mother to unborn infant.”
Zhang agrees with the state that the mercury the fish ingested likely came from the atmosphere. Zhang said previous and current coal burning is the number one source for mercury getting into the air, which in turn, gets into the rain.
Zhang said the mercury from coal burning can travel long distances. Zhang said climate change may increase the amount of mercury we see in the air.
“We are experiencing more severe storms as we know recently,” Zhang said. “So we have more severe storms, and the frequency is much higher than we have. More mercury is coming down to the surface from the rain, the storms, so that could be another alarming issue to notice.”
