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Sue Kwon of CBS5 News conducted her own unscientific experiment tracking consumption of canned tuna and measuring levels of mercury. The experiment involved eating 20 5-ounce cans of albacore tuna over 20 days and not eating other seafood that could contain mercury and impact the experiment. After eating 20 cans, she got a call from her doctor who was tracking her mercury levels, Dr. Jane Hightower who told her to stop your experiment. "It's not worth the risk" she said. At the start of the experiment, Sue Kwon's blood mercury level was low at 4 micrograms per liter. In 10 days, it went to 8.9 micrograms per liter. Then in 10 more days, it climbed to 17.2 micrograms per liter. That means, by day 20, her mercury levels had quadrupled. "Anytime in a woman's body she reaches a 14 or 15 she stands a chance of knocking IQ points off her child's brain," Hightower said. Although Sue Kwon did not yet feel side effects, Hightower said her patients with blood mercury levels that high have experienced symptoms such as body aches, joint pain, muscle aches, head ache, trouble sleeping, troubles with thinking and memory, stomach upset. The fishing industry recommends eating 2-3 servings of seafood a week including canned tuna. A "serving" of canned tuna is half a can, about enough to top 3 crackers. Obviously, the experiment involved eating more than what's recommended, but it does illustrates that even at levels below the federal limit, mercury accumulates in the body reaching levels of concern in a short period. And it's not just "canned" tuna. The New York Times did a feature in early 2008 on the absurd levels of mercury found when they sampled tuna sushi from 20 Manhattan stores and restaurants. Sushi from 5 of the 20 places, Nobu Next Door, Sushi Seki, Sushi of Gari and Blue Ribbon Sushi and the food store Gourmet Garage all had mercury above 1 ppm, the "action level" at which the F.D.A. can take food off the market (the highest mercury concentration, 1.4 ppm, was found in tuna from Blue Ribbon Sushi). The FDA has a table on Mercury Levels in Commercial Fish and Shellfish. The Fish and Shellfish With Highest Levels of Mercury are King Mackerel, Shark, Swordfish and Tilefish. Canned (Light) Tuna had about 1/3rd of the levels of Canned Albacore Tuna. What can you do: Follow recommendations and limit your intake of fish (especially those known to have higher levels of mercury) to 2-3 times a week as recommended. And remember your portion size.
Comments
Sat: July 11, 2009
rick said: This issue of toxicity is very intersting. The WHO states that risk begins at 50 ppm (50ug/L). The reality is that toxicity occurs gradually. Some people can show no symptoms even at 17ppm.
Sun: July 12, 2009
Cereal said: The reality rick is that there is no real risk when consuming canned tuna fish or any fish really. The articles Tanya mentions as evidence are just plainly bad.Just because someone has an M.D doesn't mean they're an acceptable expert in all possible medical/health fields, and in this case he was simply a general practitioner. The NY Times doesn't exactly do any deep research or critical thinking when doing science stories either they simply print stories they think will sell papers. If you actually care about the subject you can find research that has already been done on methylmercury levels in humans. Yes actual science not just bogus toxicity scares from someone trying to sell you something. |
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Canned Tuna is packed with lean protein and omega-3 fatty acids, but even the fishing industry acknowledges that it does contain mercury, a chemical that could be toxic at certain levels and erase those benefits as well as cause problems in an unborn baby. The problem is doctors really don't know how much tuna it takes for a person to accumulate high levels of mercury. The legal mercury limit in foods is 1 part per million (ppm) set by the Food and Drug Administration. But, the allowed level of mercury in the U.S. is double that of Canada (0.5 ppm), Europe (0.5 ppm), and Japan (0.4 ppm). So elsewhere, canned tuna would not be considered a "low" mercury fish.
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Red Icculus said:
I was under the impression that tuna was more safe than other fish. We eat a lot of tuna because we don't eat a lot of red meat in the house. Thanks for the great article.