OCR Text |
Show 1C70-71 hunting season at 21 locations widely distributed throughout the United States. Considering these facts, plus the liklihood that most hunters hunt-ers eat ducks only occasionally, a human health hazard seems remote. PTTKS FOTTND TO HAVE LOW MERCURY LEVELS There is .no justification for closing any waterfowl hunting ?"ar"n because of mercury level"! le-vel"! in clucks, according to the T-tfrinr Dena'-t'ent's Fish a"d Wildlife Service. Tn tepts the Service conduct-eH conduct-eH during the pa-;t year, only 30 of 307 ducks had a breast muscle mercury content rv-eeerling rv-eeerling the Food and Drug Administration's Ad-ministration's permissible limit of .5 parts par million (ppm) for domestic meats mov'.ng in interstate commerce. Levels were as low as .004 ppm and as high as 3.9 ppm. Breast muscle mus-cle was tested since it is the favored part of the duck for consumptio.n. The report cautions that livers, li-vers, which sometimes are eaten, eat-en, have averaged from two to five times as much mercury content per unit of weight as have breast muscles. Samples were from clucks of 11 species shot during the |