Government is set to launch further studies on mercury levels in fish and on water quality in tanks following the release of the Atlantis report this week.

The Atlantis Mobile Laboratory report revealed that 50 out of 70 newborns surveyed had dangerously high levels of mercury while many water tanks contained dangerous bacteria.

Director of Environmental Protection Dr. Tom Sleeter said Government scientists will now test larger samples of fish and more breeds to determine the extent of the high mercury levels.

Dr. Eric DeWailly, the Canadian scientist who headed up the Atlantis study, said the high levels of mercury found in 50 Bermudian mothers should prompt the community to investigate environmental sources which could be causing the high levels of the element found in pregnant women.

The levels were 60 percent higher than US Environmental Protection Agency guidelines and “more than double” those of the World Health Organisation.

Mercury contamination can affect a foetus severely, leading to brain and neurological impairment and development.

But both Dr. Sleeter and Dr. DeWailly said in order for an adult to be contaminated you would have to eat large amounts of the fish every day. Ninety percent of the mercury came from fish that the mothers had eaten, according to the study.

Both scientists also said that for everyone other than women who were planning to become pregnant, were pregnant or were nursing newborns, the health benefits of eating fish far outweighed the risks from mercury.

Dr. DeWailly said further analysis of mercury content in several local fish species (including wahoo and snapper) showed higher mercury levels than in other fish species.

Dr. Sleeter said yesterday that the Department of Environmental Protection will meet next week to plan wider surveys of more fish species using larger samples than the Atlantis Project to determine if the levels are as high as that study found.

“Dr. DeWailly mentioned wahoo and snapper,” said Dr. Sleeter. “We want to emphasise the point that the sample sizes were very small and more work needs to be done and we don't want to list which fish are high and which are not.”

Dr. Sleeter said further work will also be done at North Rock where elevated levels of mercury were detected.

He said there had been “speculation” that this was a result of old batteries from navigation beacons being dropped in the sea but this needed to be further investigated.

“It is possible locally that the fish at North Rock have contamination from batteries which have been dumped,” Dr. DeWailly said this week.

“As a global planet we need to consider the health of the industry and of our waters. It could be that Bermuda is in a certain part of the planet and the mercury comes from another global source.”

Dr. Sleeter said a more studies will also be done on water tanks.

He said the Atlantis study took place two months after Hurricane Fabian struck in September, 2003 and it was possible that there were still large amounts of debris on roofs and tanks.

“The Atlantis sample was reasonably small (70 tanks across the Island),” he said. “During the hurricane, all of the debris from arable ground and woodland was suspended in the air and flew all over the Island.

“Woodlands are full of defecation from rats, birds, cats and rodents and that was suspended on roofs and washed into tanks.”

He said the Atlantis study was not specific as to where the E.coli bacteria in the tanks came from.

“We will be looking for a link to see if there are human pathogens associated because in general people don't get sick from drinking tank water. We do not have high levels of gastro-enteritis or stomach illness in Bermuda.

In fact, water quality in Bermuda is very good compared to municipal water supplies in industrialised nations because we don't have industrial chemicals etc. and the water is not not being recycled or coming from groundwater which may have been in contact with industrial chemicals.