Experts: Hold The Tuna
June 19, 2003

Kay Lazar
The Boston Herald

Children and pregnant women are routinely exposed to toxic levels of mercury in canned tuna, according to a new report that accuses the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of failing to warn the public of the dangers.

"Canned tuna is one of the most consumed fish in America, and often the only fish that pregnant women and kids eat," said Elizabeth Saunders, of the New England Zero Mercury Campaign.

In nationwide testing of "white" albacore tuna, the Campaign found more than 6 percent of cans sampled contained mercury levels that exceeded amounts considered safe by the FDA.

Experts say too much mercury damages the central nervous system in children and in fetuses, and can cause learning problems.

"It affects brain function and interferes with healthy brain development," said Roberta White, of Boston University's School of Public Health.

In a separate study, White and a team of researchers found memory, language and learning problems among children with high mercury levels on the Faroe Islands, north of Scotland, where diets commonly include large quantities of big fish.

Bigger fish accumulate more mercury. The most recent study focused on white albacore tuna, which comes from the largest of tuna, and found white albacore had four times the mercury content of "light" tuna.

Currently the FDA recommends that children and pregnant women eat no more than 12 ounces of fish per week, and avoid eating any shark, swordfish, king mackerel or tile fish because of mercury levels. The warning does not include tuna; however, an FDA advisory panel last summer urged the agency to review its tuna guidelines.

Yesterday, an FDA spokeswoman declined comment on the new tuna report, saying her agency had not yet seen it.

But a spokesman for the $ 1 billion tuna industry slammed the study and pointed to a another report, published last month by researchers at the University of Rochester, which found no ill effects in children whose mothers were exposed to mercury from seafood.

Nonetheless, Sudbury mom Teresa Citro is adamant: no tuna for her 4-year-old son Justin.

"He has never had tuna and he will not eat tuna," said Citro, who is executive director of the Learning Disabilities Association of Massachusetts.

Citro said she is shocked that so many parents who call the association are unaware of the mercury issue.

A new study found the mercury content in canned white albacore tuna at dangerously high levels. RfD is the EPA's reference dose or recommended limit.

   - If a woman of childbearing age (weighing 132 lbs) east two cans of tuna per week, she will be exposed to four times the EPA's RfD.

   - An 88-pound child eating one can of tuna per week woudl be exposed to three times the EPA's RfD.

   - A 22-pound toddler eating only one-third of a can per week would be exposed to four times the EPA's RfD.