Stronger mercury warnings urged.

Byline: Scott Maben The Register-Guard

Environmental and consumer groups are urging the Food and Drug Administration to be more explicit in its warnings on the consumption of tuna and other fish containing elevated levels of mercury.

The agency is revising its advisories, including how much tuna should be eaten by pregnant women, nursing mothers and those thinking of getting pregnant. But the consumer advice is confusing and fails to single out limits for tuna, critics said.

"There's nothing in it to really inform Americans adequately about the mercury in fish, especially tuna fish, which, next to shrimp, is the most widely eaten fish in America," said Elliott Negin, spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

In Oregon, state health officials inform the public which lakes and rivers contain high levels of mercury and advise which fish to avoid or eat in moderation. Mercury advisories are in effect for a dozen places, including Cottage Grove and Dorena lakes in Lane County as well as the Willamette River and Coast Fork Willamette.

The state also offers stricter dietary recommendations than the FDA, said Dave Stone, public health toxicologist for the state Department of Human Services. FDA warnings begin once mercury levels exceed 1 part per million. Oregon bases its advisories on levels above .35 ppm.

"We don't use the FDA guidance," Stone said. "We want to be as protective as we can."

Although fish is very nutritious and is important for fetal brain development, it also can harbor mercury, a metal that accumulates in people who eat fish.

At high enough levels, mercury can damage the growing brains of fetuses and young children, causing neurological problems such as learning and attention disabilities and mental retardation.

About 8 percent of U.S. women of childbearing age have enough mercury in their blood to put a fetus at risk.

A draft advisory released this week by the FDA cautions women of childbearing age and young children to limit their intake of tuna and other fish and shellfish to 12 ounces a week, the equivalent of two to three modest meals. The agency also suggests consumers eat a variety of fish each week.

The FDA previously warned pregnant women against eating shark, swordfish, king mackerel or tilefish because those predatory fish contain unusually high levels of mercury, amassed from eating other mercury-laden fish.

The proposed new advisory - the first time the agency has directly addressed concerns about tuna - says mercury levels in tuna vary. Tuna steaks and canned albacore tuna, also called white tuna, generally contain three times the mercury of canned "light" tuna, federal tests show.

"You can safely include tuna as part of your weekly fish consumption," the agency advises pregnant and nursing women.

An FDA medical officer explained that the draft document suggests women at risk should eat no more than four to six ounces of tuna once a week.

That's too vague, complained Linda Greer, director of the health and environment program for the the Natural Resources Defense Council.

"It's not telling us which fish we can eat without worry and which fish we should avoid," Greer said.

The levels of mercury in albacore tuna are so high that adults should eat less than one serving a week to stay under the Environmental Protection Agency's safe dose for mercury, Greer said.

If a woman with a typical weight of 132 pounds ate 12 ounces of canned albacore tuna per week, she would ingest nearly three times EPA's safe dose, she said.

Even eating one standard 6-ounce can of albacore a week would still exceed the safe level, she said.

Children, who eat more than twice as much tuna as any other fish, should not eat albacore at all, Greer said.

Advocacy groups have lobbied the FDA to arrange for unambiguous mercury advisories to be posted in supermarkets and fish markets.

"Consumers not only need to know which fish to avoid, but which are OK to eat - fish like salmon, sardines and oysters," Negin said. "The FDA is not making enough distinctions to help Americans make smart choices."

Stone, the public health toxicologist, said the state recommends at-risk women avoid albacore tuna.

"If they want to continue eating tuna, we would encourage them to switch to light tuna and also supplement their diet by incorporating salmon and steelhead,' he said.

Coal-fired power plants, chlorine production facilities and other industrial sources emit mercury into the environment. A particularly dangerous form of it - methyl mercury - accumulates in the tissue of large predator fish, such as shark, swordfish and tuna.

Last week, the Bush administration proposed that mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants should not be regulated in the same way as some of the most toxic air pollutants.

The EPA is suggesting that mercury emissions be removed from the most stringent regulations of the Clean Air Act. The administration said this would be a more efficient and faster way to reduce mercury in the environment.

Laura Weiss with the Oregon Environmental Council, a group that's working to reduce mercury in the environment, said the EPA is headed in the wrong direction.

"The most important thing really is for us to start reducing our emissions of mercury so, in time, those levels of mercury in fish go down," Weiss said. "Ultimately, we should be able to eat healthy foods like fish without having to worry about the levels of mercury in them."

The Associated Press contributed to this report

FISH ADVISORIES

The state Department of Human Services issues advisories on contaminated fish in Oregon lakes and rivers. Full details are listed on the agency's Web site: www.healthoregon.org/fishadv. The warnings include:

Cottage Grove Lake: Very high mercury levels: Women of child-bearing age, children under 6 and people with liver and kidney damage should avoid eating fish from these waters. Healthy adults should eat no more than one 8-ounce meal per month.

Dorena Lake: Moderate mercury levels: Children under 6 should eat no more than one 4-ounce meal per month. Women of child-bearing age should eat no more than one 8-ounce meal every two weeks. Healthy adults should eat no more than one 8-ounce meal per week.

Willamette River and Coast Fork Willamette: High mercury levels (largemouth bass and Northern pikeminnow): Children under 6 should eat no more than one 4-ounce meal per month. Women of child-bearing age should eat no more than one 8-ounce meal every two weeks. Healthy adults should eat no more than one 8-ounce meal every two weeks.