News Coverage
Public should be warned of mercury dangers in some fish
Published May 19, 2004
The members of the Board of Health would like to explain our position regarding the Mercury in Fish Advisory regulation that we expect to vote on at our next meeting, May 24.
In so doing, we hope to refute the criticisms made by the U.S. Tuna and New England Seafood lobbies in letters that were printed in the Swampscott Reporter on April 29.
That mercury is toxic to the neurological system in the developing fetus and in small children is no longer in doubt. The science behind mercury's toxicity has been reviewed and is widely accepted by the National Academy of Science, the National Research Council, the European Food Safety Council, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
For the fish lobby to state otherwise is analogous to the tobacco industry claiming for so many decades that cigarette smoking is not associated with illness and death.
The FDA and EPA published their latest advisory in March 2004 and agree that the "safe" limit for mercury consumption is under 0.1mcg/kg body weight/day. Eating up to 12 ounces of fish per week which is low in mercury, as they recommend, will keep most adult consumers below this limit.
The FDA and EPA also agree based on their own sampling data, that canned chunk light tuna, which on average contains one-third the mercury as white albacore tuna, can be considered a low-mercury containing fish product. Giving in to enormous pressure by the tuna industry, their advisory also states that pregnant and nursing women can safely eat one 6-ounce can of white albacore tuna per week.
However, given the FDA and EPA's own data, a 132-pound woman eating an average 6-ounce can of white albacore tuna per week will be consuming 50 percent more mercury than the upper safety limit. A 22-pound child eating just 2 ounces of albacore tuna per week, or an 88-pound child eating two albacore tuna sandwiches per week, will be consuming two to three times the upper limit of mercury considered to be safe by these regulatory agencies.
We all depend on our governmental officials to protect our food and water supply, and it is unsettling to think that politics may have compromised the FDA and EPA's advisory regarding mercury in fish. But this is exactly what seems to have happened.
H.V. Aposhian, Ph.D., a member of the Food Advisory Council to the FDA and EPA, resigned in protest after the March 2004 advisory was published, since it was not based on the science that was reviewed, and he felt that the final recommendation was politically compromised and would not adequately protect the at-risk population.
The Environmental Working Group in Washington, D.C., is suing the FDA and EPA over their advisory for the same reasons.
Meanwhile, the State of Massachusetts, in spite of issuing an advisory similar to Swampscott's, has no funding to adequately educate the consumer, nor at this time the political will to require point of sale advisories to be posted.
Therefore, the Swampscott Board of Health is taking the lead to try and protect our future mothers and children from mercury toxicity. Fish can indeed be part of a healthy diet for all, but only if it is low in mercury and other toxic substances.
Our regulation, therefore, identifies the five high mercury-containing fish: white albacore tuna and tuna steaks, swordfish, shark, king mackerel and tilefish. It advises that light tuna be eaten preferentially to white albacore. And, it will require that stores and restaurants that sell these fish to post warnings directed at women of childbearing age, pregnant and nursing women, and small children.
Behavioral and learning disabilities, including autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, are not small problems in Swampscott. There are 20 autistic children living in town, and approximately 17 percent of Swampscott's school-aged children are in special education programs. The cost of these special education programs to the taxpayers will be $5.4 million dollars in the '05 budget, or 28.6 percent of the entire school budget, translating to an average of approximately $1,000 per household next year alone.
It is the opinion of the Board of Health that many of these problems our children face may be preventable, since they are often associated with toxic exposures in utero and as growing children.
An important part of prevention, therefore, is to eliminate lead, pesticides and toxic chemicals in our homes, as well as to eliminate all chemical applications on our lawns and in our yards. We need to educate consumers about mercury in fish, so that women of childbearing age can begin to lower the mercury levels in their own bodies before conception.
We believe that the posting of advisories at the point of purchase is the best way to educate the at-risk consumer. This has been demonstrated with the labeling of all cigarette packages and alcoholic beverages, which warn pregnant women not to smoke or drink. Warning about mercury is no less important.
We are unanimous in believing that as part of our obligation to protect the public's health, this is the proper action to take.
The writers are the members of the Swampscott Board of Health.