Davao Gulf laced with mercury

Studies show alarming contamination

A paper showing high mercury contamination of fishes in the Davao Gulf would be presented in a summit on food security in Davao City next week.

An alarming feature of the the study Heavy Metal Contamination in the Davao Region by Dr. Edmundo Prantilla, chairman of the Regional Council for Research and Development (Record) is a validation of findings of three previous studies showing the extent of mercury contamination of the Davao Gulf.

Prantilla would be presenting the study during the Mindanao Conference on Emerging Issues on Food Security to be held March 6 to 7 at the Grand Regal Hotel. 

Prantilla said the grouper species, followed by shells and mollusks from the Davao Gulf, the main source of marine food for the Davao Region, pose greatest threat to human health, according to Prantilla in a press conference in Davao this week.  

Mercury pollution in the Davao Gulf could be traced to processing plants in Davao del Norte for gold brought down from gold-rich Mt. Diwata in Compostela Valley.

The three other studies on mercury pollution in the Davao Gulf were those done by Dr. Rose Fundador in 1982, by the Environmental Management Bureau in 1990 and the 2005 study by the Department of Health.

Two separate studies on effects of mercury exposure to mothers and infants in Tagum City in Davao del Norte have been published in 2000 in Pediatrics of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Tagum City in the 90s was home to several gold processing plants before the city government outlawed them.

Dubbed Tagum Study I and Tagum City II, the studies showed high levels of mercury on subjects living near the gold processing plants.

Prantilla said mercury cannot be released by the body once ingested. He said high mercury levels at the Davao Gulf spawn marine life laced with mercury that people ingest.