How did you do the mercury fillings and canned tuna calculation?

Mercury in Fillings and Canned Tuna

Image Credit: jules:stonesoup / Flickr

How did you come up with your calculation about how many mercury-containing dental fillings are equivalent to eating a can of tuna once a week?

vetstud / Originally posted in Amalgam Fillings vs. Canned Tuna

Answer:

Three national brands of canned tuna were recently tested for mercury. They averaged 600 ppb of mercury, exceeding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s safety level for human consumption (500 ppb). The drained solids in a can of tuna weigh about 170 grams, so that comes out to be about 100 mcg of mercury per can of tuna. A conservative estimate of the amount of mercury we’re exposed to on a daily basis per amalgam-filled tooth is 0.5 mcg, so eating a single can of tunafish a week is like having 29 teeth filled with mercury-based fillings day in and day out.

Image credit: jules:stonesoup / Flickr

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