April 22, 2002
		Tuna Industry In Hot Water for Bullying the FDA According to documents acquired this month by the Environmental Working Group, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may have caved to the commercial interests of the U.S. tuna industry when it established guidelines on fish consumption and mercury contamination for pregnant women. The documents, which were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, include 1,000 pages of transcripts related to meetings and discussions that led to the FDA's January 2001 recommendations. Although fish like mackerel and swordfish were included, tuna was not. There were three meetings with the U.S. Tuna Foundation, Chicken of the Sea, StarKist, Bumble Bee and the National Food Processors Association. The Environmental Working Group and at least one member of Congress are questioning if the tuna industry influenced tuna's exclusion from the list of fish for pregnant women to limit. In a rare occurance, the FDA acknowledged earlier this month that it may need to revisit its recommendations. The FDA announced a meeting of its Foods Advisory Committee to review mercury in seafood. "We are going back because the Environmental Working Group report has some things in there that went into the process, and we wanted to be sure there isn't any question about that," said Joseph Levitt, director of the agency's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. Although the FDA's advisory warned pregnant women to avoid swordfish, king mackerel, shark and tilefish because of high levels of mercury contamination, one of the most significant sources of mercury in the U.S. diet, tuna, was absent. Mercury contamination can cause neurological defects or delays in mental development in children. The FDA claimed tuna's absence from the list was because they didn't want to confuse women and that consumers don't eat enough tuna for it to be significant. Americans, however, eat far more tuna than mackerel, tilefish or shark. Last May, Michael Bolger, director of the division of risk assessment of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutririon said that if given too much information, women would stop eating all fish. "We feel we have evaluated the science in an appropriate way, and our advisory is right on target," Bolger said. In a document released last May, the FDA stated, "The major points gleaned from the focus groups were to keep the message simple and direct," adding that if pregnant women were advised to limit consumption, they would interpret it to mean "do not consume." The documents obtained by the Environmental Working Group, however, contradict this belief. Rather, they found that after being presented with detailed advisories that included specific advice regarding tuna, 30 out of 37 comments indicated that respondents would continue to eat fish, but avoid those with high mercury levels. Many mentioned that they would continue to eat tuna but in limited amounts. During this time, the FDA had three meetings with industry representatives, the documents show. Industry representatives argued that tuna consumption was lower than previously believed, even though it is the most widely sold fish, accounting for one third of all seafood sales in the United states. The FDA agreed, saying that those who consume canned tuna only eat about seven ounces a week, which is not considered enough to risk mercury contamination. Considering this, it is unknown why tilefish and shark, which are consumed very seldom, were included on the list. "We'll never know exactly how much influence industry had," said Jane Houlihan, vice president for research of the Environmental Working Group. "What we do know is that tuna was in the draft advisories and wasn't in the final advisory. The FDA ignored the advice from every other group they called in. And we know the FDA's excuse for why they dropped tuna from the advisory is untrue. Their excuse is that people don't eat enough tuna, so there is no need for an advisory." Critics of the advisory say the FDA based its recommendations on outdated research about safe mercury levels in the blood, allowing it to be eight times higher than what was deemed safe by the National Academy of Sciences and the Environmental Protection Agency. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that 10 to 15 percent of American women of child-bearing age have mercury in their blood at levels even higher than the EPA's safe level, leaving 600,000 children exposed. Some international studies have found mothers who ate fish with high levels of mercury bore children who scored 7 to 8 points lower on intelligence tests. Two studies have linked neurotoxic effects like delays in mental development to chronic exposure to fish and marine animals with high levels of mercury. In light of recent events, Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. has asked the inspector-general of the Helth and Human Services Department to investigate. Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat, has introduced legislation that would require the FDA to test mercury levels in fish, a program abandoned in 1998.