HFCS and Mercury: The Facts
Posted: January 28, 2009
While much of the mainstream media and blog coverage surrounding shoddy research on the connection between high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and mercury focuses on the sensational, the authoritative Web site WedMD.com offers a more balanced perspective.
Interestingly, even the lead source at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), the organization behind this latest attack, seems to back-pedal a little.
(Dr. David) Wallinga and colleagues caution that their list was “just a snapshot in time; we only tested one sample of each product. That clearly is not sufficient grounds to give definitive advice to consumers.”
and
Wallinga points out that the lab only tested for total mercury levels, not methylmercury or other types of mercury. He also notes that the EPA has a “reference dose,” or upper limit, for methylmercury intake but not for other forms of mercury.
Further, the WebMD report quotes another expert:
“I would imagine that a good majority of the mercury that is detected would have been in the form of elemental mercury,” not methylmercury, toxicologist Carl Winter, PhD, tells WebMD. Winter, who directs the FoodSafe Program at the University of California, Davis, says that methylmercury is “by far the most toxic form of mercury” because methylmercury is better absorbed by the body than other forms of mercury.
“We have a principle in toxicology, which is the dose makes the poison,” says Winter. “It’s the amount of a chemical, not its presence or absence, that determines the potential for harm, and frankly, I don’t see based on their findings that they’ve made much of a case that this is something that consumers need to worry about.”
Click here for the Corn Refiners Association’s response to the report.