A news segment featuring a local activist group’s investigation into mercury levels in restaurant seafood earned the Los Angeles-based station NBC 4-KTTV an Emmy for medical news coverage this week. In an undercover investigation, San Geronimo Valley-based Got Mercury took samples from a variety of California sushi bars and other eateries. Independent testing revealed harmful mercury levels—sometimes twice the legal amount—in tuna and swordfish. “This is an important message to publicize because it’s such a difficult one to get out,” said Todd Steiner, executive director of Got Mercury. According to Steiner, children exposed to mercury in the United States by eating tainted seafood places a $5 billion burden on taxpayers each year. “Special interest groups such as the restaurant industry and industrial fishing concerns make big money from selling poisoned fish and certainly don’t want the public to know about it,” he said. The winning news segment can be seen at www.gotmercury.org/article.php?id=2098.