News Coverage
Food safety panel recommends tuna advisory
Published July 24, 2002
WASHINGTON -- A federal food safety committee Thursday urged the Food and Drug Administration to develop an advisory on risk posed to pregnant women who consume tuna, a fish known to contain harmful levels of mercury.
The decision came at the conclusion of a three-day hearing prompted by complaints from environmental and consumer groups that the agency was not doing enough to protect women in their child-bearing years from exposure to mercury in tuna.
Mercury is toxic to the developing fetal brain.
Last year, the FDA warned pregnant women and women who may become pregnant to avoid eating shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish -- large, long-lived fish like tuna that eat smaller fish that may have mercury in their bodies. Even though the federal agency had planned to list tuna as a fish to avoid, it ultimately did not.
The Environmental Working Group brought this inconsistency to light earlier this year when it published revealing internal documents from the FDA obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
The decision to keep tuna off the advisory was made after FDA officials met with tuna industry representatives, said Mike Casey, a spokesman for the Environmental Working Group.
"It's a case of an agency getting too cozy with the regulated community," said Richard Wiles, a senior vice president of the environmental advocacy group.
Tuna industry officials contend no evidence exists that their product is harmful to women and instead advocate that health studies show tuna has great nutritional value.
Randi Thomas, director of the U.S. Tuna Foundation, said her organization always supports appropriate consideration of up-to-date scientific information. She believes the current FDA warning is adequate because it advises pregnant women to consume no more than 12 ounces of canned fish per week.
The FDA's Food Advisory Committee reached a consensus Thursday that the agency's current mercury advisory is not founded on solid scientific evidence and that it needs to go back to develop an advisory that focuses on tuna and pregnant women, Wiles said.
"That is a big deal," he said. "There is agreement women need advice to some degree about tuna."
Members of the House and Senate had written the FDA asking the agency to respond to criticism that it failed to develop adequate warning for women about tuna's dangers.
The committee's decision is only advisory, but Wiles said he is confident pressure from Congress and outside interest groups will propel the agency to act.
An FDA spokesman could not be reached immediately for comment.
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On the Web:
www.epa.gov/ost/fish, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency fish advisories.
www.tunafacts.com, National Food Processors Association and U.S. Tuna Foundation site on tuna safety.
www.fda.gov, Food and Drug Administration.
www.ewg.org, Environmental Working Group.