Welcome  to  Public  health  moment  from the  University  of  Minnesota,  Minnesota, home  of  10,000  Lakes, leads  the  nation  in  the  number  of fishing  licenses  sold  per  capita. But  is  it  safe  to  eat  the  fish  we  catch? It's  an  important  question  because  fish can  contain  contaminants  such  as  mercury, says  Deb  Sack,  a  professor  of Environmental  Health  Sciences  at the  University  of  Minnesota. The  reason  that  we  have  this  consumption  device is  because  we  have  a  number  of chemicals  that  exist  in our  environment  and  they  are  accumulated  by  the  fish. And  these  contaminants  include mercury  poly  chlorinated  by  funnels  or  PCB's. We  have  a  couple  of  other  industrial  chemicals  that are  specific  to  Minnesota  swam. Mer  says  that  the  State  Health  Department  issues general  fish  consumption  guidelines  and guidelines  specific  for  each  lake  and  river  in  Minnesota. Essentially,  what  the  health  department suggests  is  that  men  and  women  who are  not  of  childbearing  age  should probably  limit  their  consumption  to  once  per  week. If  you're  a  woman  of  childbearing  age or  you're  a  child  under  15, you  probably  should  limit your  intake  to  approximately  once  per month  to  look  up  guidelines  for  a  specific  lake  or  river. Go  to  Health  State  do  us, and  search  for  fish  consumption with  another  public  health  moment. I'm  John  Finnegan.