Tuna Meltdown
How Green Groups and the Federal Government Put America’s Poorest Children at RiskMembers of the media: For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact us at 202-463-7112.
By steering consumers away from the fish counter and the canned tuna aisle, overblown warnings about trace mercury levels have directly and negatively impacted public health, especially the neurological development of children born to low-income mothers.
This report offers the first quantitative measurement of that impact.
Approximately 4.4 million U.S. households earning $30,000 or less completely eliminated their purchases of canned tuna between 2000 and 2006. During those years, women in those households gave birth to nearly 260,000 children. And canned tuna was the only source of omega-3 fatty acids their mothers could afford to buy.
These children are victims of public-health malpractice by green groups and the federal government, which have been issuing dire but exaggerated warnings about harmless levels of mercury that have always been present in ocean fish.
Studies show that children of women who consume the most omega-3-rich fish while pregnant—specifically canned tuna—score the highest on intelligence and motor-skills tests. And children whose mothers eat no fish during pregnancy (getting no omega-3s in their diet) are 29 percent more likely to have abnormally low IQs.
The scientific consensus about the health benefits of eating fish, especially during pregnancy, has taken a back seat to activist warnings and sensationalistic journalism about trace levels of mercury which have never been shown to be harmful. The result has harmed America’s poorest and most vulnerable children.
There have been no cases of fetal mercury toxicity due to fish consumption reported in the United States. Yet the federal government and numerous environmental advocacy groups continue to pretend otherwise—putting the health of countless children in low-income households at risk.
