For Immediate Release
Contact Buffy Martin Tarbox, GotMercury.org Campaign Coordinator
415-663-8590 x106
buffy@gotmercury.org

May 6, 2010

High-mercury fish including tuna and swordfish should not be on the menu for this Mother’s Day, May 9.

New scientific studies show that America’s favorite seafood, tuna, and other fish including swordfish, is contaminated with dangerous amounts of mercury, putting millions of women and children at risk. Tuna of all types is the number one source of mercury in the American diet – contributing more than one-third of all mercury ingested from fish. 

“The best way to honor the mothers in your in life is to give them the gift of information about avoiding high mercury fish, especially tuna,” said Buffy Martin Tarbox, Campaign Coordinator for GotMercury.org a non-profit public health project based in Forest Knolls, CA.  “Tuna should never be on the menu for a mother or developing children.”

GotMercury.org recently conducted an investigation of supermarket tuna and swordfish and found over 40 percent of the fish contained levels of mercury well above government standards.   To view the report please click here

A new study published in the April 2010 issue of Environmental Research shows that tuna accounts for thirty seven percent of the total mercury in the seafood supply -- almost six times as much as the combined total of the four highest mercury-laden fish: swordfish, shark, king mackerel and Gulf tilefish.

The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency has found that 15 percent of babies born in the United States each year have dangerous levels of mercury in their bodies due to their mother’s consumption of fish. But the government does not alert the public to the mercury issue, except on its website, leaving mothers to fend for information themselves. Seafood sellers are not required to warn fish buyers about mercury.

According to the Got Mercury.org fish calculator, a woman who weighs 140 pounds and eats a six-ounce portion of tuna this week will be exposed to a mercury level that is 144 percent above government exposure guidelines. The free, easy-to-use calculator based on U.S. fish-mercury standards found at www.gotmercury.org can help guide people towards fish that contain lesser amounts of mercury.

Mercury contamination of seafood is a widespread public health problem, especially for women of childbearing age, pregnant and nursing women and children.  Studies have shown that mercury ingestion can lead to memory loss, developmental and learning disorders, vision loss, heart disease and, in extreme cases, result in death.

About GotMercury: The Gotmercury campaign works to protect people and the environment from mercury. Because of the ubiquitous nature of mercury in the environment and because federal and state public health agencies are not doing enough to raise public awareness and protect the public from mercury, GotMercury developed the free online mercury-in-fish calculators that have received millions of hits since 2002. For more information visit www.gotmercury.org or www.gotmercury.mobi