An August 19, 2005 post on the http://CalorieLab.com/News page notes Willie Soon's HealthFactsAndFears article on exaggerated risks from mercury in fish:
On Monday the Wall Street Journal published an article co-written by Willie Soon entitled "Eat More Fish!" which addresses the fears about the effects of mercury on children's brain development and other health worries. Today a condensed version of the article authored solely by Mr. Soon appeared online at the American Council on Science and Health web site in Todd Seavey's HealthFactsAndFears blog. Mr. Soon is an astrophysicist at Harvard with some unconventional theories about global warming, not a medical researcher, and he is chief science researcher at the Center for Science and Public Policy (CSPP), a generally anti-"alarmist" (i.e., pro-industry) think tank/watchdog organization financed by tobacco companies and oil companies, among others (as gleefully pointed out here by one of their frequent opponents, the Center for Science in the Public Interest). So that's where Willie is coming from, and there also may be seafood industry funding somewhere behind the curtain at CSPP.
Nevertheless, we like what he says, and we've said similar things recently in the context of the soy-isoflavone hullabaloo.
¦As Mr. Soon points out in his article, the Japanese have "alarmingly" high levels of mercury, above the U.S. Environmental and Health Agency s (EPA) safe level ¦
And the thing is, there is no evidence of an epidemic of brain-damaged Japanese kids...
