Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is defending his recent claims that most of Alberta’s freshwater fish are inedible due to contamination.
Kennedy made the claim on Jan. 16 during a speech at a fundraising dinner for his Waterkeeper Alliance at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel.
Kennedy told more than 600 attendees, who paid $500 each to attend the fundraiser, that as much as 90 per cent of Alberta’s fish are too contaminated to eat.
During an interview Wednesday on CTV’s Canada AM, Kennedy did not say on what research his claim is based.
However, he did say most Canadian fish have some mercury in them, and went on to list the health problems the chemical poses to humans.
“Mercury is a deadly neurotoxin, it’s a brain killing poison, even a molecule of mercury could destroy brain cells and cause deformities in children,” Kennedy said.
“It causes a grim inventory of diseases: autism, blindness, mental retardation, speech delay, language delay, ticks, learning disorders, as well as heart disease, liver disease and kidney disease. The tests that we do have, which are mainly done provincially in Canada, indicate that Canada has the same problem with mercury that we have in the United States.”
The Alberta government says most of the mercury in fish likely comes from natural sources in soils and sediments.
However, environmental advocacy groups, as well as both Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Safety, point out that mercury is also released into the environment via human activities, such as pulp and paper processing, mining and burning garbage and fossil fuels.
Environmental groups such as Greenpeace also contend that when the wetlands that originally covered Alberta’s tar sands are drained, high amounts of mercury can be released into surrounding water bodies.
Health Canada sets fish consumption guidelines based on the concentration of mercury in fish tissue, as well as on the human body’s ability to eliminate the element.
The agency recommends that when mercury levels in fish exceed 0.5 ppm, women of child-bearing age and children under 11 should avoid eating that fish. Healthy adults may eat limited amounts of that fish.
According to tables published online by the province, women of child-bearing age and children under 11 should avoid between one and five types of fish from each of 16 of Alberta’s rivers and lakes.
The tables indicate that healthy adults are limited to 75 grams per week of all but walleye and northern pike from Lac La Nonne, of which 400 grams per week is allowed.
Kennedy argues that Health Canada’s regulations are misguided and there are no safe levels of mercury.
“Here’s what I would say to Health Canada: if you want mercury in your fish, any mercury, even a molecule of mercury, you should add it yourself at home,” Kennedy said. “But don’t put it in fish that the public has to eat, and don’t allow polluters to put it into the fish that the public has to eat.”
