Fertility and environmental experts have warned that consuming stockfish, seafood and other edibles contaminated with metals can cause birth defects, miscarriage, infertility, among other health complications.
The experts, while speaking exclusively with PUNCH Healthwise in separate interviews, said heavy metals such as mercury and lead are endocrine disruptors that account for high infertility rates in males and females across the world.
Endocrine disruptors are chemical compounds that interfere with the normal functioning of the endocrine system, which regulates reproductive and other biological processes.
And ones the endocrine system gets disrupted, it could lead to hormonal imbalance and infertility.
According to an online medical journal, ScienceDirect, heavy metals are carcinogenic in nature and adversely affect Deoxyribonucleic acid, proteins, and lipids by producing free radicals that lead to severe health and environmental problems.
Speaking on this, a fertility expert and professor of Anatomy and Reproductive Endocrinology, Oladapo Ashiru said any couple that wishes to make babies should stay away from large fish and dried stockfish as a way of avoiding heavy metals like mercury.
Ashiru, who is also the President of the Africa Fertility Society, said, “Stockfish and other classes of large fish contain mercury, which is very toxic to the embryos. That is why some fertility experts all over the world issued a committee opinion that if you want to have a baby, as a man or a woman, you should avoid large fish, stockfish and other seafood that may be contaminated.
“Heavy metals like lead, mercury, copper and silver among others disrupt the endocrine system and make conception difficult. It’s important to avoid some of these fish. The larger the fish, the larger the elements they contain. Some fish even carry plastics in their bodies.
“So, if you want to eat fish, eat the small ones and avoid the big ones. Mercury contamination has been found in many different types of seafood. Women should know that eating contaminated seafood while pregnant could increase the risk of giving birth to babies with birth defects and neurologic impairment.
“Recent studies have also demonstrated that mercury consumption may also be related to infertility and miscarriages. Men who had an abnormal semen analysis and women with otherwise unexplained infertility also had higher levels of mercury. We, therefore, advise all patients who are attempting to conceive to try to reduce their consumption of seafood.
“If you want to have a baby, you must clean up your body before attempting conception. Usually, you will be required to do a bioenergetic test to determine the level of toxin in your body.
“Some of these toxins are so important that they are removed. Things like pesticides will affect the baby and the mother as well. The test will show you how many days you have to detoxify the person or yourself to get rid of these toxins from the body. It may be five days, a week or more depending on the result.
“Heavy metals affect sperm production and the amount of sperm produced. It may affect the DNA fragmentation. That is, the man may have normal sperm but when it comes to producing a baby, it may not be good enough to sustain pregnancy, thus leading to miscarriage.
“When the sperm is not good enough, it will not produce a good embryo because of heavy metals. It also prevents proper cell division or union of sperm and the egg.”
According to the World Health Organisation, heavy metals like cadmium, lead and mercury are common air pollutants emitted mainly as a result of various industrial activities and contribute to build-up in soils.
“Heavy metals are persistent in the environment and are subject to bioaccumulation in food chains. Cadmium exposures are associated with kidney and bone damage. It has also been identified as a potential human carcinogen, causing lung cancer.
“Lead exposures have developmental and neurobehavioural effects on fetuses, infants, and children, and elevate blood pressure in adults. Mercury is also toxic in elemental and inorganic forms, but the main concern is associated with the organic compounds, especially methylmercury that accumulate in the food chain, the main route of human exposure.
“Exposure to these metals through long-range transboundary air pollution affects even the most remote regions.”
Also speaking, a Consultant Environmental and Public Health Microbiologist at the University of Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State, Professor Alfred Itah, said heavy metals find their way into the body when people consume seafood laced with them.
He said, “If aquatic organisms in water like fish and other sea animals pick up these pollutants, they become contaminated. Then, in the event that humans catch such fish and eat it, they (humans) also ingest the pollutants and it circulates in their system too.
“Some of these pollutants like mercury, lead and copper have some cancerous effects on humans, but beyond that, it is poisonous to the body. These heavy metals are pollutants from the environment and are most often found in oil-impacted environments because in most cases, mercury is contained in crude oil environments.”
A study titled, ‘Association between heavy metals exposure and infertility among American women aged 20–44 years: A cross-sectional analysis from 2013 to 2018 NHANES data,’ confirmed infertility as a significant medical and social problem.
