Under strong pressure from Big Canned Tuna, the Food and Drug Administration is crazily lax in regulating mercury in tuna. Among many examples: In 2000, a draft advisory to pregnant women listed canned tuna as a product highly contaminated with mercury; after FDA officials met with the three largest tuna companies, the final advisory left tuna off the list. When the FDA's fish mercury guidelines were revised in 2003, canned light tuna was put in the low-mercury group -- mainly, according to an FDA official, "in order to keep the market share at a reasonable level." The FDA doesn't require warnings in stores or on tuna cans, issuing advisories mainly through doctor's-office brochures. However, a recent appeals-court decision could open the door to allowing states to mandate warning labels on tuna -- a prospect opposed by both the tuna industry and, sadly, the agency tasked with regulating Americans' food and drugs.
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source: Mother Jones
see also, in Grist:Study finds excessive mercury in 20 percent of women of childbearing age
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Green Granny Posted 8:46 am
04 Sep 2008
For your own safety, follow what the EU does. If the EU labels a product potentially harmful or out-right bans it, avoid consuming that product.
As for the arguments about cost to American manufacturers of increased regulation -- they happily sell different, safer versions of their products in Europe. For example, Kellogg's (Kashi & Morning Star) has committed to not use GM sugar in its products marketed in Europe -- but is using it here.
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phenix Posted 6:40 am
05 Sep 2008
A portion of the mercury in the environment becomes methylmercury which can have negative effects on the nervous system. Methylmercury is most often introduced into humans through the consumption of fish. Because of these concerns, fish advisories are widespread.
However, fish provides many essential nutrients and minerals, including dietary selenium. Studies at the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) Center for Air Toxic Metals® (CATM®) are investigating the critical issue of interactions between dietary selenium and mercury. It appears from these studies that the critical issue is having sufficient levels of selenium in the diet. Selenium binds tightly with the mercury making it inert.
Results seem to show that mercury's effects are not apparent when adequate or rich sources of selenium are consumed at the same time. Note that eating whale meat, a custom of the Faroe Islanders, resulted in mercury poisoning. Whale meat is very high in mercury, and deficient in selenium.
While these studies are ongoing, their results help to explain mercury's toxic effects and lead to the conclusion that consumption of ocean fish may not pose as great a risk as once thought, and indeed may be an essential source of selenium for protection from other sources of mercury in the diet. Moreover, avoidance of fish can deprive the body of the beneficial effects of many important nutrients, including selenium and omega-3 fatty acids.
For more information, see http://www.undeerc.org/catm/newsletters.html (Volume 12 Issues #2)
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mtvyfan Posted 1:26 am
09 Sep 2008
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