News Coverage
2 agencies urge limit on eating tuna
Published March 20, 2004
To reduce exposure to toxic mercury, young children and pregnant and nursing women should eat no more than one can of albacore tuna or two cans of light tuna a week, two federal agencies said yesterday in their first advisory on the most popular fish consumed by Americans.
The Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency said these women and children can safely eat up to 12 ounces of fish each week, as long as they avoid shark, swordfish, king mackerel, and tilefish, which are high in mercury. No more than 6 ounces should come from canned albacore tuna, they said, recommending instead shrimp, salmon, pollock, or catfish.
But a scientist who advised the FDA says eating the recommended amount of tuna would expose pregnant women to far too much mercury.
"The new recommendations are dangerous to 99 percent of pregnant women and their unborn children," said H. Vasken Aposhian, a professor of molecular and cellular biology at the University of Arizona. Aposhian said he resigned yesterday in protest from the FDA's Food Advisory Committee that helped draw up the new guidelines. The committee did not see or vote on the final recommendations, he said.
FDA officials acknowledged that following their tuna recommendation would push the level of mercury in a pregnant or nursing woman's blood above the level at which the EPA says there is no risk. But they said women are unlikely to see problems unless the amount in their bloodsteam is 10 times that level, called the reference dose.
"If you're a little above the reference dose, you're not in a zone of harm," said Dr. David Acheson, chief medical officer for the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. "Fish is good to eat. It's high in protein, low in saturated fat, and it's a very important part of a balanced diet. We have to balance the good side of fish with any risks from mercury."
High levels of mercury in the blood of fetuses and young children can harm their developing nervous systems. However, they have little effect on adults, who gradually eliminate the toxic metal from their bodies. The mercury in fish, called methyl mercury, is much less harmful than the mercury in thermometers. It occurs naturally in the environment and is also released by coal plants. The mercury collects in water and is absorbed by fish. Typically, larger fish and those that live longer accumulate more mercury in their tissues.
The new recommendations are being made three years after the FDA first suggested that pregnant women restrict the amount of fish they eat.
The agency was criticized at that time for failing to make recommendations that specifically addressed canned tuna, which accounts for nearly one-fifth of the fish consumed by Americans.
Yesterday, some consumer advocates said the new advice was helpful.
"Today's advisory represents an improvement," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety for the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "The failure to include tuna meant that the old advisory missed one of the major exposure routes for the public."
However, DeWaal said the center would like to see the FDA set a standard for mercury in fish that is half the current level, as Canada has done.
Another advocacy organization, the Environmental Working Group, said pregnant and nursing women and children should eat no albacore tuna and only one 6-ounce serving of light tuna a month.
The FDA and EPA advisory reiterated the earlier recommendation that pregnant and nursing women and young children completely avoid shark, swordfish, king mackerel, and tilefish because they contain high levels of mercury. They said women considering having children should follow the same guidelines. They said fresh tuna steak falls in the same category as albacore tuna and should be limited to 6 ounces a week. Fish sticks and most fast-food fish sandwiches are low in mercury, they said. The agencies said they were unable to say at what age children were no longer at risk from eating fish containing mercury.
Massachusetts health officials recommended three years ago that pregnant and nursing women and children under 12 not eat any tuna steak and that families give toddlers only light canned tuna, not albacore, according to Suzanne Condon, associate commissioner of the Department of Public Health. The state stands by those suggestions, she said.
State officials also recommended several locally favorite fish as safe for everyone - cod, haddock, and flounder. Massachusetts officials also advise pregnant and nursing women and children to avoid all fish caught in local freshwater lakes and streams.
The new federal recommendations are not likely to have much impact on New England's hard-pressed fishing industry, according to Peter Shelley, vice president of the Conservation Law Foundation. None of the high-mercury fish and little of the fish recommended by the FDA are caught in New England, he said.
However, the National Fisheries Institute, a trade group that represents the fishing industry, said it was concerned that the recommendations would scare people away from eating fish.
"Our concern is that consumers may misinterpret some of the messages and shy away from a product that the American Heart Association and American Dietetic Association are encouraging us to eat twice a week," said John Connelly, president of the Institute.