Free mercury level check today

Although Utah is one of two Western states that has not issued a consumption advisory for possible mercury contamination in fish, three area environmental groups are offering a free hair clippings mercury level check today.

The testing, scheduled noon to 1:30 p.m., at The Mood Hair Design and Color, 870 E. 900 South, is sponsored by the Sierra Club, the Great Salt Lakekeeper organization and a group called UPNet.

"One in six women of childbearing age in the U.S. already has enough mercury in her body to put her fetus at risk of learning disabilities and developmental problems," the sponsors stated in a press release announcing the test.

Mercury finds its way into the environment from several sources, mostly coal-fired power plants, gold mine operations and other natural resource processing industries, they wrote. It "is emitted into the air and then rains down into our oceans, lakes and rivers and into the fish we eat."

High levels have been found in shark, swordfish, tilefish, king mackerel and albacore tuna, they added, noting that 45 states have issued fish consumption advisories for certain fresh-water sport fish. Utah has not.

"This is in spite of recent discoveries of dangerously high levels of mercury in the Great Salt Lake, massive gold mining operations in Nevada emitting thousands of pounds into the air, upwind of Utah, and the fact that Utah is proposing to build four more coal-fired power plants," the release stated.

Those who want to be tested should have clean, dry hair without gel or hair spray.