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I I ,'5t ,,~ashington, DC 01 I MAY 41993 Chemicals That Taint Seafood Concerns Continue Over Safety of Methylmercury Inspection Processes ~ Carol. Sugonmo ..." FW s.0 W~ T he issue of inethylmercury-around for years-resurfaced last month at a Food and Drug Administration conference on chemiql - contanunantsin seafood. Tom Masso, director of food inspection at the Minnesota Department of Agricvlture and a past president of the Association of Food and Drug Officials, said state officials he has talked with are finding excessive levels of inethylmercury in some fish. What's more, Masso said, "all the states are doing 'something else' about it. Tbere's a lot of cmftuion." EATING RIGHT • • Late last year, retailers and distributors voluntarily stopped selling shark in Minnesota after state officials found levels of methyimercvey that exceeded federal guidelmes in 24 of the 39 samples it tested. The shark came from several states, including Texas. California and F}orida.'vfasso said. And although it's hard to find shark in Minnesota anymore, the state wants to protect consumers who might have the fish in their freezers Minnesota advised no more than one serving a month, and that pregnattt women. nursing mothers and children under 6 not eat it at all, htasso said. Other states have not issued a suttAar advisory, as far as he }mows Mercury, a metallic chemical, is naturally present in seawater; it can get into lakes and rivers from industrial pollution or from the atmosphere. The bacteria in water can turn the mercury into its methylated strtxture, the chemical's most toxic form to humans. The bacteria are then eaten by protozoans, which are consumed by fi.sh. The chemical accumulates, so larger fish often have higher levels than smaller ones. That's why tong-lived predators such as shark and swordfish are of pattiatlar interest. And there have been some concerns raised about methylmercury in canned tuna. But the National Fisheries Institute, an industry trade group, says that changes in fishing locations and the adoption of dolphin-safe fishing methods mean smaller tunafish are being used for canning in greater numbers than 20 years ago. The consumption of fish with tnethylmercury may be the most troublesome to pregnant women. A 1991 National Academy of Sdences report on seafood safety stated that methylmercury'quite easily passes the placental barrier. placing the fetus at particular risk." As for the level of tnethyimercury in fish that may cause problems, the academy said that "lowdose developmental risks from fetal ezposures to methyhnercury may be appreciable." But the FDA thinka otherwise. Calling the academy's coactuvons "mostly aaecdotal; an FDA official who tracks chemical contaminants in seafood said that low-dose reproductive risks have not been substantiated. What is known is the impsct of high levels of methylmercury on human reproduction. In the 1950s, pregnant women in Minamata, Japan..vho subsisted on fish from the heavily polluted Minamata Bay, gave birth to offspsmg wtth developmental problem.s. A 1970 study of 223 janior high school students born in the Minamata area in the '50s showed that 18 percent had mental deficiency, 21 percent experienced sensory di.uurbance, 12 percent had clumsy speech and 9 percent had clumsy movetnents. Ne.ertheless, the National Academy of Sciences said that while high mercury kvels may occur in sttark, swocdfah or halibut sold in this country, these are "quite closely regttiated" by state agencies and the FDA, "so it is unlikely that the consumer will experience a dangerously high level in fish sold at retail." But CarolinC Smith Dewaal. staff attorney for the consumer group, Public Voice for Fodd and Health Policy, which has petitioned the FDA to lower the federal , guideline for the contaminant, disagrees. The "state (fevel) experience doesn't bear this out," she said. \ Recent figures from FDA indicate 20 percent of the 500 to 600 shark and swordfish tested nationwide from 1989 to 1992 had levels above federal guidelines. Tom Billy, director of the agency's Office of Seafood, called these findings "good," corr sidering that the sampling method is designed to find problems: So what's the bottom line? Even the National Fisheries Institnteadvises that pregrantand breast-feeding women limit consumption-vf shark, to no more than once a month; it recommends that they avoid eating the internal organs, skin and fatty sections, where c.ontaminants tend to conceatnte.  Nat tatk• Bodymosks camrnts the bad iaay to nhydsatt after aerri.tt-wata or sports drinks?