Safe Sushi: New Sierra Club App Determines How Much Mercury Is In Your Fish

Safe Sushi? There's An App For That

Mercury poisoning doesn't just happen to Jeremy Piven. Mercury is released by industrial pollution and can accumulate in bodies of water, which fish then absorb.

The Sierra Club is hoping educate sushi consumers about their mercury risks through the new app, Safe Sushi. A press release sent to HuffPost Food describes how the app works:

Safe Sushi is an app for people who love to eat sushi and want to be informed about which fish have high levels of mercury. The app can be used in two ways: sushi novices can search by mercury level (high, moderate and low) and sushi connoisseurs can search by the name of the fish.

According to the Sierra Club, as many as one in six American women have enough mercury in their bodies to put a baby at risk and over 300,000 babies are born each year at risk of mercury poisoning.

Safe Sushi now joins a handful of other free apps that help diners choose what fish to order. Seafood Watch, perhaps the best known seafood app, guides diners toward "ocean-friendly" fish choices by grouping fish into categories such as "avoid" and best choice." FishPhone is along the same lines -- it ranks fish species from high to low abundance.

The free app is available now in the Android Market and will be available December 16 on iTunes.

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