Sushi Versus Mercury

I have read the article Sushi Lovers Seem Undeterred by Health Warning About Mercury Levels written by James Barron in The New York Times published on Thursday January 24^th 2008.

In a main point of view, this article explains that even though people are aware that consuming tuna sushi could be a considerable issue for their health because of the level of mercury that compose them, they obviously keep eating them. In the first part of the article, Barron introduced the sushi experience of Sara Barokas, a teacher, who usually goes to the Gourmet Garage where she degusts variable pieces of sushi. Then Barron mentioned basic information about the research that was done about the rate of mercury in tuna sushi. In the last part of his article, Barron presented a comparison of mercury rates by considering people experience and the restaurant where they ate pieces of sushi (particularly in Manhattan).

This article can be seen as a strategic one. Indeed, the reported individuals’ experience reflects specific categories in a society. Moreover, a direct judgement can be expected through these variable categories:

- The category of families: a mother with her daughter went to the Gourmet Garage. People’s opinion about this event could be: “How a mother can consume mercury sushi with her own child? A mother supposed to protect her child against any sort of danger!”

-The category of rational people: a management consultant ate at Megu restaurant, and a trader at Deutsche Bank consumed pieces of sushi at Blue Rabbon Sushi. People may wonder: “How could it be possible that reasonable people consume tuna sushi? Normally they hardly think before acting.”

-The category of the educational staff: a teacher went to the Gourmet Garage and a retired teacher went to Nobu restaurant. Again, people could be amazed by the reaction of such a category because normally, these people represent the education in its general meaning. In other words, they are those who learn to children the important behaviour to apply in a society (for the others and also for themselves)