UK Warns Women to Limit Canned Tuna Consumption Due to Mercury; US Fails to Act

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UK Warns Women to Limit Canned Tuna Consumption Due to Mercury; US Fails to Act

Advocates Applaud Britain's Precautionary Approach, But Question Lack

of Warnings by US and Other Countries in Light of Recent UN Global

EUROPE, Feb. 19 -/E-Wire/-- On Monday, the British Food Safety Agency warned pregnant and nursing women--and those considering pregnancy--to limit consumption of tuna to two cans per week because of concerns that mercury "could present a health hazard" to an "unborn child's developing nervous system." Today, an international mercury watchdog group applauded Britain's precautionary approach, but questioned why other countries--and especially the United States--haven't taken similar steps to protect the unborn.

"At the recent U.N. Environment meeting in Nairobi, Environment Ministers agreed that mercury was a serious global pollutant that warranted immediate action," said Michael T. Bender of the Mercury Policy Project and a representative of the Ban Mercury Working Group at the U.N. meeting. "We urge all countries to follow Britain's lead and protect the unborn from mercury by warning pregnant women to limit fish consumption."

The Nairobi agreement called for immediate action to alert the public to exposure risks from mercury, and "especially vulnerable groups such as pregnant women and babies." While some countries may not be fully unaware of low-level mercury exposure risks from those fish consumed most often, last July the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's food safety committee recommended that pregnant women be warned about mercury levels in canned tuna. However, after several months, the U.S. FDA has failed to act.

"Canned tuna is the most consumed fish in the U.S., and in many cases the only fish pregnant women eat," said MPP Director Bender. "Given the recent U.N. decision, we question why FDA has failed to warn pregnant women to protect the unborn."

Mercury is released into the atmosphere from coal-fired power plants, mining, waste disposal, and industrial processes like chlor-alkali plants. Descending from polluted air into water, mercury works its way up the food chain and can cause brain and nerve damage resulting in impaired coordination, blurred vision, tremors, irritability and memory loss, behavioral problems and loss of intelligence, and cardiovascular disease.

New medical evidence indicates that very low levels of mercury exposure may cause damage to unborn babies and young children. Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control indicates that one in 12 women of childbearing age has mercury levels above those considered safe by the Environmental Protection Agency, translating into more than 300,000 children born each year in the U.S. at risk from exposure to mercury. Ten states advise pregnant women and children to limit consumption of canned tuna due to mercury.

According to a U.S. EPA scientist attending the U.N. Environment meeting in Geneva last September, "The reason for breaking out canned tuna separately is because people eat so much more of it than other kinds of fish so that the actual exposure of canned tuna is probably the largest, on average, exposure of people to mercury. In fact, even at the average exposure of 0.2 (parts per million) or there abouts you can easily exceed the (U.S. EPA's) reference dose at non-pathological levels." For more information: http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk/news/pressreleases/tuna_mercury http://www.mercurypolicy.org/new/documents/MercuryContaminatedSeafo od.pdf http://www.mercurypolicy.org/new/documents/FDArelease072602.pdf http://www.ban.org/Ban-Hg-Wg/Mercury.ToxicTimeBomb.Final.PDF http://www.unep.org/Documents/Default.asp?DocumentID=277&ArticleID; =3211 http://www.chem.unep.ch/mercury,

Mercury Policy Project

http://http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk/news/pressreleases/tuna_mercury

http://http://www.mercurypolicy.org/new/documents/MercuryContaminatedSeafood.pdf

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