MercuryPolicy.org

http://www.mercurypolicy.org/

12/10/02 US Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Hilary Clinton (D-NY) wrote FDA Commission Mark McClellan urging FDA to "...develop a mercury standard consistent with the standard set by the Environmental Protection Agency and endorsed by the National Academy of Sciences". The senators' letter also supported "...immediate action on several important recommendations of the Advisory Committee...that the current advisory is too general and should define which kinds fish have high mercury levels and should be consumed in moderation..." and that "...tuna, both canned and steaks, should be included in the consumer advisory. The committee emphasized repeatedly that the omission of tuna from the current advisory is a public health risk." In addition, the letter states that "FDA should resume testing of both highly consumed seafood and other seafood less frequently consumed but with potentially high levels of mercury...FDA can and should provide health advice that fully protects pregnant women from mercury exposure and inform them about nutritional, low-mercury seafood alternatives."

11/28/02 In the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, several articles appear regarding mercury exposure from fish and health effects. The Guallar article concludes that there is a direct association between levels of mercury in men from fish consumption and risk of myocardial infarction, while the Yoshizawa article did not find a relationship between total mercury and heart disease in men.

Appearing in the same issue, two FDA staff co-authored a "Perspective" on "Mercury & Health" and provide a web link of several consolidate data sets for methlymercury in seafood. "Unfortunately, the FDA fails to point out the percentage of seafood tested that have unsafe levels of methylmercury," stated Michael Bender, director of the Mercury Policy Project.

FDA staff also presented some of the recent recommendations of their Food Safety Committee, including: 1) conducting a detailed assessment of the level of canned-tuna consumption and the associated level of methylmercury exposure, 2) defining what is meant by "a variety of fish" relating to dietary recommendations to the age or size of a child, and 3) working with other federal and state agencies to include commercial and recreational fish under the same umbrella advisory and 4) expanding the monitoring of methylmercury levels to include measurement of levels in humans (in blood, hair, or both.) "Noticably missing was the Food Safety Committee's recommendation that FDA should warn pregnant women, nursing mothers and young children to limit consumption of canned tuna," said MPP Director Bender.

11/4/02 A study involving 116 middle- to high-income men and women in a San Francisco medical practice shows nearly 90 percent had blood levels of mercury surpassing EPA's safe levels - some by more than 17-fold (see the Press Release). "Patients in my practice regularly get mercury poisoning from eating commercial seafood, "says Dr. Jane Hightower, the internal medicine physician who authored the study. The patients tested were chosen based on their levels of fish consumption, or symptoms consistent with mercury poisoning, including depression, memory loss, confusion, tremors, metallic tastes, and hair loss. Although her study didn't aim to correlate symptoms with mercury levels, when patients stopped consuming those fish their symptoms got better. The study appeared November 1 in the online version of the National Institutes of Health journal, Environmental Health Perspectives. Check out press coverage in USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, the Tri-Valley Herald, and on E-Wire.

7/26/02 An independent food safety committee recommended today that the US Food and Drug Administration warn pregnant women and children to limit consumption of canned tuna, one of the most consumed fish in America, due to mercury. Currently, ten states--including Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Vermont, Connecticut, Washington, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin--have posted advisories warning pregnant women and, in some cases, children to limit consumption of canned tuna. Six states also warn children to limit consumption of large tuna because of high mercury levels. "We applaud FDA's Food Advisory Committee for recognizing the importance of informing pregnant women and children about the mercury exposure risks from canned tuna," said Michael Bender, Director of the Mercury Policy Project, and a presenter to the Food Advisory Committee. Read the MPP presentation on Mercury Contaminated Seafood.