This chart lists several brand-name foods that had "detectable" levels of mercury, the worst of which is about 350 parts per trillion. According to Wikipedia, the "action level" of mercury in fish (the point at which government takes action) is one part per million. So it sounds like you'd have to eat/drink thousands of servings of this food to equal one particularly bad helping of fish.
On the other hand, Wikipedia lists the legal limit for water as two parts per billion ("inorganic mercury" instead of "methylmercury"), which would be easier to hit. I'm not sure which limit applies in this case.
Edit: It might be worse than this for some portion of the population. From the "Not so sweet" paper:
Using the USDA’s estimate of 50 grams of average consumption HFCS per day, one might roughly estimate potential total mercury ingestion via HFCS of up to 28.5ug total mercury/day (50 grams HFCS X 0.570 ug/g). Using these same assumptions, high-end HFCS consumers potentially could
have much higher total mercury ingestion.
It is difficult to know to what to compare this figure. The EPA has established a "reference dose," or maximum recommended dietary intake of methylmercury. Methylmercury is the form typically found in fish and seafood. The reference dose of 0.1 ug/kg/day applies to women of childbearing age and young children, who are thought to be the most at risk from methylmercury exposure. For the "average" 55 kg American woman, this would translate into no more than 5.5ug/day of methylmercury.
There is no reference dose for total mercury. The mercury found in HFCS may be a different form of
mercury than the methylmercury typically found in fish (we just don’t know), but it poses a risk just
the same. Mercury in any form can be toxic to the developing brain.
This chart lists several brand-name foods that had "detectable" levels of mercury, the worst of which is about 350 parts per trillion. According to Wikipedia, the "action level" of mercury in fish (the point at which government takes action) is one part per million. So it sounds like you'd have to eat/drink thousands of servings of this food to equal one particularly bad helping of fish.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_poisoning#Prevention
On the other hand, Wikipedia lists the legal limit for water as two parts per billion ("inorganic mercury" instead of "methylmercury"), which would be easier to hit. I'm not sure which limit applies in this case.
Edit: It might be worse than this for some portion of the population. From the "Not so sweet" paper:
Using the USDA’s estimate of 50 grams of average consumption HFCS per day, one might roughly estimate potential total mercury ingestion via HFCS of up to 28.5ug total mercury/day (50 grams HFCS X 0.570 ug/g). Using these same assumptions, high-end HFCS consumers potentially could have much higher total mercury ingestion.
It is difficult to know to what to compare this figure. The EPA has established a "reference dose," or maximum recommended dietary intake of methylmercury. Methylmercury is the form typically found in fish and seafood. The reference dose of 0.1 ug/kg/day applies to women of childbearing age and young children, who are thought to be the most at risk from methylmercury exposure. For the "average" 55 kg American woman, this would translate into no more than 5.5ug/day of methylmercury.
There is no reference dose for total mercury. The mercury found in HFCS may be a different form of mercury than the methylmercury typically found in fish (we just don’t know), but it poses a risk just the same. Mercury in any form can be toxic to the developing brain.