Usually we disregard stories that have the term “unscientific experiment” in their introduction. But we came across one today that feeds a myth
so harmful to public health that it must be corrected. (Again) We’re referring, of course, to the all-too-common misunderstanding of seafood scares and a general blindness to the unmatched benefits that seafood provides.
Fish hype has been the focus of much media attention lately, especially with Jeremy Piven’s ongoing sushi saga. In an attempt to get to the bottom of
mercury-in-tuna scares,
San Francisco’s CBS 5 conducted an experiment in which a reporter, Sue Kwon, ate 20 cans of albacore tuna over 20 days. In that time period, Kwon’s blood mercury level reached 17.2 micrograms per liter.
"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,"
Dr. Jane Hightower says in the
article, which notes that the legal mercury limit set by the Food and Drug Administration is 1 part per million.
As is typical in the media, the report fails to note that this legal limit is not any kind of safety limit. In fact, it has a ten-fold safety cushion built in. The same is true for the EPAs Reference Dose of 5.8 parts-per-million.
So let’s do some math: 5.8 parts-per-million means 5.8 micrograms per
deciliter -- or 58 micrograms per liter. And then there's that pesky 10-fold safety cushion. So Kwon's big experiment got her to less than
3 percent of a mercury level that
might be cause for actual health concerns. No wonder the CBS report concludes by noting that
Sue Kwon did not feel side effects.
If she
had experienced any side effects, this story would not be on a local television affiliates website, but on the front page of every major newspaper. Kwon, after all, would have made history by becoming the first documented case of mercury poisoning from eating a fish sold in restaurants and supermarkets.
But of course, Kwon is fine. And given that -- as the report itself notes -- canned tuna is packed with lean protein and brain-boosting omega-3 fatty acids, she’s probably healthier than before her unscientific experiment began.
Center for Consumer Freedom——
Bio and Archives
The Center For Consumer Freedom is a nonprofit coalition supported by restaurants, food companies, and consumers, working together to promote personal responsibility and protect consumer choices.
