Environmental Group Challenges Federal Mercury Advisory

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, December 22, 2003 (ENS) - The Environmental Working Group today filed a legal challenge to block the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from issuing a proposed health advisory for mercury in seafood. The organization says the guidance is too vague and could actually cause an increase in the number of women of childbearing age with unsafe levels of the toxic metal in their blood.

A draft advisory released this month by the FDA called on pregnant women, women of childbearing age and children to limit consumption of all fish to 12 ounces per week. It calls on these populations not to eat four species known to have high mercury levels - shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tile fish. But it does not list which fish species are low risk and high risk for mercury content and offers no specific guidance for children.

And the FDA's proposal does not recommend limiting in take of any other particular species. Rather it calls for people to eat a variety of seafood and avoid eating just one kind of fish or shellfish during a week.

This ignores ample evidence that at risk populations should be advised to limit consumption of particular fish known to be of higher risk of mercury contamination, according the challenge filed by the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit research and advocacy group.

For example, new tests by the FDA show that albacore "white" canned tuna has three times the mercury levels of "light" tuna, but this is not reflected in the advisory.

The blood of 74 percent of pregnant women would exceed the government's safety level at least once during their pregnancy if they ate even one six ounce can of albacore every week, according to the Environmental Working Group.

The proposed guidance calls on citizens to take notice of local and state mercury advisories for fish caught in U.S. waters. (Photo by George Gentry courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

The primary health risk from mercury comes from fish, which ingest the toxic metal - both from natural and human sources.

Although mercury is a naturally occurring metal, most mercury pollution comes from the burning of fossil fuels in coal fired power plants, waste disposal, industrial processes, and mining. Current emissions of mercury add to the existing pool, which is continuously mobilized, deposited on land and water, and remobilized.

Scientists have shown that mercury can cause brain and nerve damage, and studies indicate children and women of childbearing age are at greater risk than other people.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control says some eight percent of U.S. women childbearing age has unsafe levels of mercury in their bodies.

FDA officials say they are trying to balance the desire to encourage consumption of fish, which has ample health benefits, with the concerns over mercury contamination.

Earlier this month they told an expert committee tasked with reviewing the advisory that listing which fish pose higher risks of mercury - and detailing individual safe amounts for different species - would be confusing to the public.

The U.S. Tuna Foundation says the proposal downplays the health benefits of eating tuna, which is the second most popular seafood among U.S. consumers, and could encourage women to eat other, less healthy foods.

But the 20 member panel called for revisions and more specific guidance, much of it along the lines of what the Environmental Working Group has requested.

The panel recommended that the FDA include three lists targeted at pregnant women, women who may become pregnant, nursing mothers and children.

Predatory fish, such as swordfish, tend to have higher levels of mercury. (Photo courtesy World Wide Fund for Nature)

The FDA guidance is expected to be finalized and released to the public next year.

The Environmental Working Group is challenging the proposal under the Data Quality Act, a law passed in 2000.

The law requires all influential statements by the federal government to be accurate, reproducible, clear and based on the best peer reviewed science. The organization alleges that the FDA's proposed health advisory fails on all counts.

The FDA did not examine what effects its advice would have on mercury levels in the general public, according to the Environmental Working Group, and its advice is based on inadequate testing and faulty analysis.

The organization says it will pressure the FDA to correct the proposal and will file suit in federal court if the agency does not produce an advisory that is satisfactory by Data Quality Act standards.