News Coverage
FDA panel recommends more study of tuna mercury levels
Published July 24, 2002
The Food and Drug Administration should advise pregnant women to limit tuna consumption as it further studies mercury in their diet, an FDA scientific committee said Thursday.
In a decision closely watched by San Diego-based tuna giants Bumble Bee and Chicken of the Sea, the panel said it was trying to strike a balance between the nutritional benefits of eating tuna and other seafood and concerns that have been raised about mercury in fish. It did not recommend a specific tuna consumption limit. Mercury can damage the brains and nervous systems of developing fetuses. Some fish, particularly large predatory species, contain high levels of methylmercury, which enters the aquatic environment from coal-fired power plants and other pollution sources.
"Nobody wants to tell people to stop eating tuna fish," said Sanford Miller, the FDA committee chairman. "It's a very hard balance to make."
The committee held three days of hearings on the issue after environmentalists raised questions about the adequacy of the FDA's current fish consumption advisory. The Environmental Working Group complained that the advisory lacked a specific consumption recommendation for tuna, even though it is the most widely consumed fish in the United States.
It accused the FDA of bowing to industry pressure, which the agency denied. The industry says tuna contains far less mercury than the other fish singled out in the advisory and that the current guidelines are adequate.
Large tuna steaks typically contain more mercury than canned tuna, which is made from smaller fish. But consumer and environmental groups have targeted both products for stricter consumption limits for pregnant women.
The Food Advisory Committee, made up of outside food and health experts, said the FDA needs to do a more detailed analysis of tuna's contribution to methylmercury levels in women and specifically address tuna in its advisory. It also said that fish consumption by young children needs to be addressed more comprehensively.
The FDA should do an assessment of how it arrived at its current seafoodconsumption guidelines and publish it in a peer-reviewed journal, the committee said. Other groups making claims about the safety of seafood should do the same, it added.
An FDA spokesperson said the recommendations "will be an A-list priority for us in the coming year. We heard that FDA is going in the right direction but needs to do more to protect public health with regard to methylmercury in seafood."
The current FDA advisory, originally issued in January 2001, says pregnant women, those who may become pregnant, nursing mothers and young children should not eat shark, swordfish, king mackerel or tile fish. It generically recommends limiting consumption of other fish to 12 ounces a week. The advisory was crafted after meetings with industry representatives, consumer groups and other parties.
Jane Houlihan, vice president for research at the Environmental Working Group, called the committee's recommendations "basically an across-the-board indictment of how the FDA has dealt with tuna."
But Randi Thomas, a spokesperson for the San Diego-based U.S. Tuna Foundation, an industry group, said, "We are confident the current advisory is adequate to protect both the mother and her child."