One in six American women of childbearing years has unsafe levels of mercury in them.

I was one of them.

As an actress living in Los Angeles, I am lucky to have ready and privileged access to organic restaurants, fitness trainers, nutrition counselors, yoga instructors and holistic health practitioners on the cutting edge of traditional and alternative medicine. But two years ago heavy toxicity, specifically mercury poisoning, became a real and harmful threat to me.

My doctor had suggested I get tested for mercury because emerging data showed a dangerous spectrum of health effects from mercury exposure, particularly for pregnant women. My doctor’s concern proved absolutely correct.

The results of my diagnostic tests revealed mercury levels exceeding twice the EPA’s maximum safe level. I was shocked. Even though I wasn’t planning for pregnancy right away, the discovery that my body could potentially be toxic for a baby was startling. Though there were no symptoms, I found there were serious concerns for me as a woman, before even worrying about carrying a child.

I had no knowledge of terms such as heavy metal toxicity, or total body burden, which refers to the buildup of environmental toxins in our bodies. As a longtime nature lover and (so I thought) conscientious advocate for the environment, I was concerned about the danger of chemical pollutants and carcinogens; pesticides and nuclear waste – but my concern was superficial at best. Until I began to learn the real effects of heavy metal toxicity within my own body, and the potential of having my own child’s health compromised, I did not grasp the urgency surrounding this issue. Nor did I take personally the extent certain agencies of our government and in particular this current administration are complicit in contaminating not only our planet, but also our population. It has been an eye-opening journey.

Mercury is a natural occurring metal that can take a variety of many forms. All are toxic, but the most common type of mercury exposure is dietary exposure to methylmercury, an organic form that is found in fish and shellfish. Methylmercury is formed when elemental mercury (mostly from coal fired plants) is released from smokestacks in the air, falling into our soil and waterways. Fish absorb the methylmercury through the water and they prey, accumulating larger and larger amounts as it goes up the food chain until it reaches us, at the top of the food chain. In our country coalfired power plants release almost 50 tons of mercury into the air every year. (See Waterkeeper magazine Fall 2004.)

According to information published online by the Physicians of Social Responsibility, short term exposure to high concentrations can cause harmful effects on the nervous, immune and respiratory systems. Chronic exposure can permanently damage the brain and kidneys at any age and has been recognized as a possible co-factor in diseases like Alzheimer’s, MS, ALS, and Autism. But the developing brain of a fetus is by far the most vulnerable organ system as methylmercury is a potent neurotoxin that passes through the placenta and accumulates there. It can cause mental and developmental retardation. Nursing mothers can also pass mercury through their breast milk.

I was faced with the troubling trade-off. Either consume my primary source of protein, specifically salmon and tuna, rich with essential fatty acids and other well-documented nutritional benefits and risk my health via unknown amounts of mercury, or deny myself a food source that should be rightfully available to me and protected by environmental standards. This is a dilemma we all face.

While the FDA has issued guidelines for fish consumption for women of childbearing years to counteract the effects of mercury, there has been a conflict over the accuracy of the advisories. I wonder where our government is in terms of providing truly accurate warnings, aggressive outreach, and education to women. For me personally, it has not been an easy task to determine recommendations that are consistent, although the consensus seems to be that cold water fish such as Wild Salmon, Tilapia, Haddock and (gulp) Sardines are the safest.

Notwithstanding my disillusionment at their failure to make food options safe and nourishing (what does EPA stand for anyway?) I am upset by what I have learned of the deference afforded to polluters over the health of our present and future generations. Under the Clinton Administration there was hope our government might make significant progress in reducing emissions from coal fired plants (EPA claimed a 90 percent cut was achievable and affordable), but under President Bush we have seen EPA offer pollution credits rather than reducing their actual emissions (and now the goal has been cut to 60 percent over the next 29 years).

To me, it's more than ironic to hear Bush’s rhetoric of “No Child Left Behind” and watch an administration that is obsessed with fetal rights given their blatant disregard of this risk. Mercury is toxic to everyone, but most especially to babies in-utero. Something must be done to stop mercury pollution.

I have successfully lowered my levels to where it is safer for me to get pregnant. That is success on a small personal scale. But on a much larger and imminent planetary scale I believe it is time for all of us to sound the alarm. Time for education and advocacy – for cleaner forms of energy and to clean up coal plants and other polluting industries that are contaminating our precious water supplies and food sources. Our lives and our children depend on it.

***Since the publication of this article last year, Annabeth has given birth to a healthy baby boy.***