Advocacy Groups Seek FDA Rule on Mercury in Seafood

Several consumer protection organizations have filed a citizen petition with
the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), seeking a rulemaking “for labeling
and point of sale advisories concerning mercury in seafood to minimize
methylmercury exposure to women of childbearing age and children.”

According to the petition, some 200,000 children in the United States,
between ages two and five, have blood mercury levels nearly 50 percent
higher than base levels recommended by the Environmental Protection
Agency. Noting that the percentages of women and children exceeding
recommended mercury levels are higher in coastal regions and among
African-Americans, Asians, the affluent, and those in the fishing industry, the
petition claims that consumers “do not know the risks inherent in exposing
themselves and their families to this potent neurotoxin.”

Jane Hightower, a physician who authored Diagnosis: Mercury—Money,
Politics & Poison, signed the petition, which was also brought on behalf of
Earthjustice, the Zero Mercury Working Group, and Center for Science in the
Public Interest. They seek seafood labeling and point-of-sale advisories that
would inform women of childbearing age and parents of young children
about (i) “the presence of mercury in certain seafood species,” and (ii) “the
recommended consumption limits associated with relative mercury content,
including the importance of eating 12 oz. of lower-mercury seafood a week.”
The petition includes proposed warning label alternatives and a chart
showing which fish species have the lowest and highest mercury contents.