In the book Collapse, Jared Diamond notes that the average Chinese person has a blood mercury level twice that which is considered toxic. This has usually been attributed to China's high-fish diet.
In fish, high mercury levels are the result of the methylmercury found in coal that is blown into the air from smokestacks in coal-fired factories and energy plants. The mercury then blows out over the ocean and when it rains enters the sea, where it is absorbed by fish. It is especially high in big fish because they eat smaller fish and absorb all their mercury. When humans eat fish, they are also eating the mercury that fish has eaten.
But now researchers have found that some of the worst mercury-regions of China may be due to eating rice, not fish. The root cause, however, is the same: rainfall carrying the mercury down into rice paddies.
Mercury Surprise: Rice can be risky
from Science News
https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/science-public/mercury-surprise-rice-can-be-risky
2010 Study:
In Inland China, Rice, Rather than Fish, Is the Major Pathway for Methylmercury Exposure
by Zhang et al from Environmental Health Perspectives
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