Hello /r/India,
Just wanted to update you.
We, at the Office of MP /u/tathagatasatpathy, have been following the Hindustan Unilever mercury poisoning case in Kodaikanal closely. A shoutout to /u/UnileverCancerFactor for bringing attention to this.
To help out, we have filed a Calling Attention notice under section 197 in the Lok Sabha with the statement below.
Anglo-Dutch multinational Unilever owes compensation to the affected citizens
In the year 1987 a factory was opened in Kodaikanal by Hindustan Unilever. This factory which was said to be the largest thermometer plant in the world was shut down in the year 2001 because of its inability to fulfill its social responsibilities. It was located on the ridge of the Shola forests. This forest also had a watershed that drained in Pambar River. Through its irresponsible take towards the nature, myriad people have suffered.
A 7.4 ton stockpile of crushed mercury containing glass was found in the scrapyard. It also dumped mercury in Shola forests, which spread to the watersheds. It’s been nearly 12 years now and every now and then one gets to hear grievances of people. An environmental audit commissioned by the company in response to the 2001 controversy admits that the "estimated offsite discharge to the Pambar Shola forests is approximately 300 kg." In other words, even Unilever's hired consultant estimates that 300 kg of mercury have been released into the watershed forests south of the factory. Additionally, the consultants also say that 70 kg were released through airborne emissions. The consultant's report does not indicate the destination of these emissions.
According to a Government of India report submitted to Madras high court (Chennai) in 2011, 30 people died and 550 ex-workers are suffering due to mercury exposure. Many more workers and their children continue to suffer the effects of mercury poisoning. Miscarriages and children born with congenital ailments and severe mental and physical disorders continue to be reported among the workers and their families. The fish in Kodaikanal Lake are contaminated, which has caused the loss of livelihood for many people. Water as far as Madurai, a major city about 130 kms from Kodaikanal, has been contaminated. That’s no surprise because the contaminated water from the mountains flows onto
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I’ve tried looking it up and I’m seeing mixed things - some saying 2-3 serves of fish maximum a week, others say eating fish daily is fine.
I also ask because I’ve never met - or really heard of - someone who has gotten mercury poisoning from eating fish, and I know people who eat fish and other seafood daily.
For context I’m just transitioning from veganism to pescetarianism, so I wanted to know what, if any, concerns I should have here. If any of you have a personal experience that would be great.
If everyone ate 4 cans of something as satiating, tasty and high in protein as tuna every day we'd have too many hot and thin people.
Note: I am planning to speak with a doctor but just looking for general input here as well.
Three or four years ago I became pescetarian and began eating more fish. For a while (probably from 2017 thru 2019) I was getting tuna and salmon poke bowls (a scoop of both) 3 - 4 times per week for lunch, and I also have eaten the Costco albacore tuna cans fairly regularly at certain times over the years. Since working from home in March 2020 onward I stopped getting poke bowls altogether, but I* have* been making sockeye salmon very regularly for dinner, on top of the occasional entire can of albacore for lunch. On days I don't have salmon for dinner, it's usually shrimp. So all told I'm probably eating seafood 5 to 6 times per week, with most of it being sockeye salmon.
I honestly had no clue mercury poisoning was a legitimate "thing" (I always heard it used more as a punch line, like when Jeremy Piven supposedly used it as an excuse to back out of a play), but over the last year or so I've begun to have a lot of noticeable anxiety and feelings of fatigue and just...screwy thoughts basically. I am a medical MJ patient and was having REALLY bad panic attacks after vaping which I never used to get. Sometimes I felt like I was going crazy while medicated, so I stopped smoking weed and chalked it up to that. But I found myself becoming really sensitive to caffeine as well, and was just having a lot of anxiety in general.
Long story short, I just realized two or three weeks ago that mercury poisoning can give such symptoms, and I read a topic on reddit where someone said marijuana combined with mercury poisoning can cause psychosis because of the way they interact and cause neurotoxicity...which could explain the anxiousness and panic attacks as well, I guess.
I'm planning to ask a doctor to get my blood tested tomorrow, but just wondering if anyone here has ever had it and whether going this long without having it treated could pose serious long term health risks? If I have been accumulating it in my system the last three years or so (with symptoms being noticeably worse the past year) is that really bad? Am I going to have neurological issues as I age? I'm 33.
Luckily the vast majority of the fish I eat is the sockeye salmon which apparently is relatively low in mercury, but the frequency that I eat it alongside the occasional entire can of albacore and/or shrimp has me concerned for sure.
I never got to the point of being unable to get out of bed etc.,
... keep reading on reddit ➡Kind of a random question but seemed like a relevant place to ask. (Sorry in advance for the wall of text.)
In 2017 I became pescetarian and began to eat sushi for the first time in the form of poke bowls. I LOVED it and was soon addicted. There was a restaurant right by my office, and no exaggeration I was getting double portion raw sushi poke bowls (one scoop tuna, one scoop salmon) 3-4x per week.
I guess I was just totally ignorant of the whole mercury aspect and thought it was something very rare that only impacted some people. I only ever heard it used as a punchline, like when Jeremy Piven claimed he had it.
Well, I stopped getting sushi around the start of COVID since I began working from home, but from that point onward I was cooking salmon and shrimp multiple times per week and also eating albacore tuna quite often.
The last year or so I've begun to slowly experience a lot of strange symptoms. I am a medical MJ user, usually just use it before bed to help sleep, but I began to get REALLY bad panic attack / anxiety feelings when medicated, to the point it felt like I was going through psychosis. Not just a bit of paranoia but feeling like I was going mental. So I chalked it up to the weed and cut back, began to only use CBD, but I was also having fatigue, gastro issues, and began to have anxiety episodes during the days that would appear out of nowhere. And it didn't feel like normal anxiety. Hard to describe but felt like a wire in my brain wasn't firing right and was sending my body into flight or fight mode. It often happened after taking my multi vitamins and a sulphoraphane supplement I use called BROQ (which supports liver health - it's basically a substance found in broccoli sprouts that has powerful health benefits), so I thought I was allergic to something in them. I stopped taking my multivitamin at one point because it seemed to always happen within a few hours of it.
All this being said, about a month ago I read about mercury poisoning and it was like a light bulb went on. Most interestingly, I read that thc (in marijuana) can cause psychosis when there are high levels of mercury in the blood stream. Immediately my bad reactions to the MMJ made sense.
Then I listened to a podcast by Dr Mark Hyman all about mercury (https://youtu.be/1C0YMMzycWI), where he said that detoxing mercury or any metals / toxins in the body is usually done "naturally" by the liver, which utilizes glutathione. And guess what was one of the ingredients i
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Either you'll go manic or psychosis. Both are better than nothing.
So I've been feeling overly fatigued lately. For No reason at all. The past couple weeks its been getting worse. I looked up a lot of the symptoms Of mercury poisoning and i exhibit all of them. I'm going into a doctor next Tuesday to have some tests done.
I'm worried because I actually recently hooked back up with an ex of mine, who I do love.
But I did leave out for 2 months with practically no word.
We ended up speaking again and now I'm back in her state, in her place.
Shes still a bit hurt by what I did And I get it. But over the past couple weeks I've been feeling very strange. Certain symptoms I looked for on Google were mainly depression, insomnia, etc.
But as I looked a bit deeper at ALL of my ailments point to mercury poisoning.
Is she trying to kill me?
Punish me for leaving?
Or is all the just conjecture and my mind playing tricks on me.
Anyone has any ideas on what else it could be I'm open.
I tried posting this on r/nutrition and the automod thought I was asking for medical advice so it got removed. I thought I might get some good input here instead. To be clear, This isn't a request for medical advice. I actually plan to have my mercury levels tested but this is more of a general nutrition question regarding intake of fish and mercury content.
A few years ago I became pescetarian, so I naturally find myself incorporating way more fish into my diet than I used to (where chicken was once a staple).
My go-to's are typically wild caught frozen salmon, farm raised shrimp, and canned albacore tuna. I would say I'm averaging the shrimp and tuna less (which is good bc they apparently have higher mercury content), but the salmon and veggies is practically a daily staple for dinner. I used to eat a lot of sushi but not so much lately.
But after having some fatigue and anxiety lately I basically stumbled across mercury poisoning and went down the rabbit hole of how it can cause neurological issues. But I guess I'm wondering from a nutrition standpoint how much you'd actually have to eat to risk that?
Does anyone have any general input on this topic or recommendations in terms of how much someone should aim for, generally speaking? Again, for my specific purposes I will definitely talk to a doctor - but it's always nice fielding questions like this to Reddit and hearing perspectives or experiences others may have. Especially if anyone has actually had mercury poisoning before!
Also posted this to r/weed but thought it may be relevant here as well.
I was researching mercury poisoning this morning as I am pescetarian and eat a good amount of fish. In fact I have wild caught salmon almost every day for dinner. So I was concerned when I read that mercury can build up pretty quickly, and I've had a lot of fatigue lately so I decided I might cut back on how much fish I'm eating for a while.
However I also saw a discussion on Reddit where a guy claimed he had high levels of mercury in his bloodstream (from a heavy fish diet), smoked cannabis, and had a days long episode of psychosis that his doctor told him was triggered by the combination of the mercury and THC.
This kinda sounds like baloney to me, but I'm just wondering if there's any scientific basis to it and whether anyone has heard of experienced similar effects. I ask because I got a medical card about a year and a half ago and vape pretty regularly to help sleep, but I've had a couple truly awful experiences with higher potency carts (particularly the sativas or hybrids) and just wondering if I could be more sensitive to the negatives because of eating so much fish and, as a result, higher than normal levels of mercury.
how sick would I get
Hello, i am under 18 (if it matters) and have been a pescitarian for 2 years now, but i have often been worried about mercury poisoning. I know i have to avoid exotic fish like sharks and all that.
I mainly eat fish like salmon, haddock, bass etc. I eat fish maybe 3-5 times a week. I have been feeling good for the past 2 years. But can someone clarify for me what fish to eat that are low in mercury but nutritious and if i am going overboard with eating fish 3-5 times a week. Thanks.
