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FDA Urged to Crack Down on Tuna Mercury Levels

"Time to Stop Protecting Fishermen's Profits, Start Protecting Children"

By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com

August 2, 2005
The Food and Drug Administration’s advisory urging limits on how much tuna children and some women should eat fails to provide adequate protection against mercury poisoning, according to an independent group studying the issue. The Mercury Policy Project says one out of 20 cans of white, albacore tuna should be recalled as unsafe for human consumption.

Mercury in Fish • High Mercury Levels Found In Sushi • Maternal Seafood Consumption Benefits Children's Development • Study: Benefits of Fish Outweigh the Risks • Tests Find Higher Mercury Content In Imported Tuna • Americans Confused about Mercury in Seafood, Survey Finds • Whole Foods Agrees to Post FDA's Mercury Warning • Americans Confused about Health Effects of Eating Fish • Mercury Levels Rising In Sport Fish • FDA Finds High Mercury Levels in Some Canned Light Tuna • Study: Moderate Fish Consumption Poses Mercury Risks • CSPI: Government Should Warn About Mercury in Fish • Whole Foods Pressed To Add Mercury Warnings • Warnings about Mercury in Fish May Do More Harm Than Good • Despite Contaminants, Fish Healthy for Most Men • Fish is Brain Food • FDA Urged to Crack Down on Tuna Mercury Levels • CA Restaurants Will Issue Fish Warnings • California Sues Tuna Canneries

"Our test results confirmed what FDA has known for well over a decade: white tuna has much higher mercury levels than light tuna, with samples at the 1 part per million FDA action level. This is the level FDA uses to recall fish from the marketplace," said Michael Bender, the group’s director.

"FDA's own food safety committee recommended that the Agency revise its advisory, but FDA has failed to act because of undue influence by industry," said Bender. "FDA should stop protecting the fishing industry's profits and start protecting children."

Methylmercury -- the organic form mercury assumes in fish -- is a potent neurotoxin that poses the greatest risk to the developing fetus, infants, and young children. The latest data from the CDC indicates that 5.6 percent of women of childbearing age in the U.S. have unsafe mercury levels that may place the developing fetus at risk.

Canned tuna is consumed in 90 percent of American households and accounts for over 20 percent of US seafood consumption.

What should consumers know when they head down the tuna aisle at the supermarket?

“They need to know that white tuna has between three to five times as much mercury, on average, as the light can tuna,” Bender told ConsumerAffairs.com. “This has been demonstrated, not only by the testing that we’ve done, at Consumers Union, but also the testing that FDA did.”

"Pregnant women and young children should be advised to avoid consuming albacore white tuna, as the Rhode Island Department of Health recommends," Bender added.

Albacore accounts for about one-third of all canned tuna sold in the U.S. The independent testing found that mercury levels in white canned tuna averaged over 0.5 ppm.

How much fish a person can eat before exceeding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) "virtual safe limit," called a reference dose (RfD), depends on body weight and mercury content of the fish. For example:

• A 22 pound toddler eating only 2 ounces of tuna per week with a 0.5 ppm mercury concentration would have an intake over 4 times the EPA's RfD, according to the group.

• If a woman with a typical weight of 132 lbs eats 12 ounces of canned tuna per week (the limit advised by FDA) with a 0.5 ppm mercury concentration, she will exceed by 4 times the EPA's RfD.

• An 88 pound child consuming one 6 ounce can of tuna with a 0.5 ppm mercury concentration weekly would be exposed to 3 times the EPA's RfD standard.

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