Sacramento Safeway Picketed to Force Swordfish Warning

SACRAMENTO, California, May 12, 2004 (ENS) - At lunch hour today protesters are converging on the Safeway Store at 1025 Alhambra at J Street in Sacramento to protest Safeway's ongoing sales of swordfish and its inadequate placement of mercury health warning signs throughout the Sacramento region.

The protest is organized to have maximum impact on Safeway's National Shareholder's meeting, which takes place next week.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), swordfish contains high levels of mercury, which is toxic to developing fetuses and children and should not be eaten by pregnant women and children.

"It's irresponsible for Safeway to knowingly sell a product that can harm women and children," said Andy Peri, an analyst for Sea Turtle Restoration Project, which organized the protest. "Right here in Sacramento, in the backyard of the attorney general and Legislature, Safeway is disregarding California's Prop. 65, and not adequately warning its customers about the dangers of eating fish it sells."

Proposition 65, the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, was enacted as a ballot initiative in November 1986. The Proposition was intended by its authors to protect California citizens and the state's drinking water sources from chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm, and to inform citizens about exposures to such chemicals.

Proposition 65 requires the governor to publish, at least annually, a list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity.

In late 2002, the Sea Turtle Restoration Project tested swordfish from Safeway stores and several other supermarkets and found high levels of mercury in the fish.

Under Prop 65, the organization filed a 60 day notice of intent to sue supermarkets, and the California Attorney General took over the case, which is intended to require the stores to post warning signs.

The testing indicated that swordfish from Safeway had mercury levels amongst the highest with levels of 1.73 parts per million (ppm), a level that would put a 120 pound nursing mother at over 1,030 percent of the level that the EPA considers safe, the organization said.

The California Attorney's General's Proposition 65 mercury warning sign states that, "pregnant and nursing women, women who may become pregnant and young children should not eat the following fish: swordfish, shark, king mackerel, tilefish. They should also limit their consumption of other fish, including fresh or frozen tuna."

Safeway/Vons is one of the few supermarket chains in California that continue to inadequately post signs warning customers of mercury in seafood in direct violation of Proposition 65, California's consumer right-to-know law. "Stores in Sacramento are particularly egregious in this regard," said Peri.

A survey conducted by the Sea Turtle Restoration Project in Safeway stores in the Sacramento and Sierra foothills region indicate that Safeway has failed to post signs or failed to post them adequately in more than 70 percent of its stores.

"Adequate signage is the first step," said Peri. "But in the long run, Safeway needs to pull items such as swordfish from its shelf in order to protect its customers and their children."

The Sea Turtle Restoration Project has also developed an online seafood mercury calculator at: http://www.gotmercury.org so seafood consumers can personally determine how much mercury they are being exposed to through their diet.