Fish polluted by mercury, lead

BANDUNG: Researchers from Padjadjaran University in Bandung have found toxic levels of metallic elements in the fish in Saguling Dam in the Bandung regency.

The metallic elements detected in the fish were cadmium, lead and mercury, according to the researchers from the university's Research Center for Natural Resources and the Environment.

Hilmi Salim, the program coordinator for the Aquatic Ecology Division in the center, said on Wednesday he suspected that the toxic elements originated from several industries and households surrounding the large dam.

Oekan Abdullah, the chairman of the center, added that the pollution in the dam was linked to the daily activities of some four million people living near the dam and along the Citarum River in the West Java, which flows into the dam.

Contamination of fish with toxic levels of mercury, can lead to birth defects in human beings, among other things. -- JP