Another one
THIS one's saying Canned Tuna should fall under same guidelines since its eaten so much more... unless you;re one of the guys who eats sushi every night
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 Mercury Decision
London, England, 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,
