By Seven Weaver Producer
News 3 On Your Side, John B. Amos Cancer Center
Celebrate Earth Day, April 22, by requesting your grocery store to post the FDA’s advice about mercury in fish.News 3 On Your Side, John B. Amos Cancer Center
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Stumble It!Mercury advice is not getting to those who need it most
Visit www.oceana.org and read Hold the Mercury: How to Avoid Mercury When Buying Fish
The FDA advice on mercury can be summarized in a brief message:
Women of childbearing age and young children can eat up to 12 ounces of seafood per week, but should not eat swordfish, tilefish, king mackerel or shark. They should also limit consumption of albacore tuna and tuna steaks to 6 ounces a week or less.
Today’s seafood cases and sushi menus present a wide variety of fish to choose from, such as swordfish from South Africa, salmon from Alaska, or tilapia from Honduras. And the typical consumer checking out his or her options isn’t aware that some types of fish contain high levels of mercury contamination and others contain vastly lower levels. As a result, many people do not know that they can avoid the risks of mercury exposure while still enjoying the benefits of including seafood in their diets. For those who buy their fish at stores that post the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advice about mercury in fish, choosing low mercury fish is simple. Most people, however, shop at stores that are not posting
such warning signs, leaving customers at the mercy of grocery counter attendants who, this report shows, are unlikely to advise them well or accurately. This means that there may be few protections for those people, especially women and children, who may already be at risk from high levels of mercury in their bodies.
Tuna is the primary source of mercury in the American diet, due largely to high levels of tuna consumption despite the reportedly moderate levels of mercury in tuna. While tuna comes in many forms, sushi tuna and fresh
tuna steaks have recently sky-rocketed in popularity. These types of tuna unfortunately are the high mercury varieties, compared to the less glamorous canned light tuna which the FDA considers to be a low mercury fish.
To confirm that some fish are high in mercury and others are not, Oceana volunteers collected fish samples from grocery stores and sushi restaurants in 26 U.S. cities and had them analyzed to determine their mercury content. Most grocery stores where samples were purchased were not posting the FDA advice at the seafood counter. Volunteers,
including some Oceana staff, also surveyed seafood counter attendants to find out whether they could effectively communicate the FDA advice on mercury in fish at the point of sale. The report, Hold the Mercury: How to Avoid Mercury When Buying Fish summarizes Oceana’s (www.oceana.org) analysis of mercury levels in fish purchased at grocery stores and sushi restaurants and summarizes the results of the seafood counter surveys.
Consumers should choose fish wisely to maximize healthful omega-3 fat intake while minimizing exposure to mercury.
Examples of low mercury fish high in omega-3’s:
Salmon (farmed)
Mackerel (North Atlantic)
Herring
Anchovies
Salmon (canned)
Salmon (wild)
Tuna (canned, light)
Sardines
Pollock
Crab (blue, king, snow)
Scallop
Shrimp
Flatfish (sole, flounder, plaice)
Catfish
Cod
Tilapia
Source: U.S. FDA, 2006 Mozaffarian and Rimm, 2006; Mahaffey, 2004; Nesheim and Yaktine, 2006
Recommendations for healthful eating encourage seafood at least twice a week for its stash of omega-3 fatty acids.
But concerns about the mercury content of fish murky the water!
One example is the increasing popularity of sushi. Sushi is typically made with blue fin tuna which is a large predatory fish at the top of the marine food chain which explains its high mercury content. Mercury is an environmental contaminant that originates from man-made sources and eventually ends up in oceans and accumulates in fatty fish. The bigger a fish is when caught the more mercury it is likely to contain.
Blue fin tuna, shark, swordfish, and king mackerel are generally considered unsafe to eat due to their high level of mercury contamination. Women of childbearing age and young children are especially cautioned to avoid these species.
The benefits of eating seafood outweigh the harm if you limit your intake of the riskiest choices.
1. Don't make sushi a daily indulgence
2. Ask what kind of tuna is used to make sushi
3. Avoid blue fin and bigeye tuna
4. Choose sushi sources that the National Resources Defense Council recommends as low in mercury - www.nrdc.org
5. Opt to buy fresh tuna to cook rather than eating sushi - the type of tuna used for sushi contains three times the mercury of fresh tuna sold as steaks or fillets
6. Consider switching to other seafood sources of omega-3s - five of the most commonly eaten types of seafood that are low in mercury are canned light tuna, salmon, shrimp, pollack and sardines - www.oceana.org
Recommendation for Earth Day - April 22, 2008 Grocery companies should post the FDA advice about mercury in fish on signs at seafood counters - contact your grocery store to request that this action be taken
Additional information:
http://www.iatp.org/iatp/publications.cfm?accountID=421&refID=102205
