Something Fishy in Washington
As a health-conscious consumer, which federal department are you to trust, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)?
This is not a trick question. It became very relevant last weekend when Chicago Tribune reporter Michael Hawthorne revealed that the FDA had sent recommendations to the White House Office of Management and Budget calling for the removal of government warnings about the dangers of eating mercury-laced fish.
No sooner had that news broken than the EPA cried foul, saying that the FDA’s advice was “scientifically flawed and inadequate,” and “trivializes or overstates existing research,” according to the newspaper.
The two supposed watchdog agencies had been singing from the same song sheet on the issue of mercury since 2004: Women of child-bearing age, nursing mothers, and young children should limit seafood consumption to 12 ounces per week.
Now the FDA says that the benefits of eating seafood outweigh the disadvantages, a little mercury poisoning be damned.
This has pleased seafood industry groups, such as the National Fisheries Institute (NFI), which has complained frequently about the mercury guidelines, claiming that they were scaring women away from eating fish. The institute greeted the proposed new policy (which has yet to be officially enacted) enthusiastically, and urged President-elect Obama to implement it quickly.
The NFI shouldn’t hold its breath. Obama and the Democrats in Congress have advocated tighter mercury restrictions, which has led some to speculate that the FDA’s new policy is just one of the many industry-friendly rules the Bush administration is attempting to push through in its waning weeks.
(Here’s a handy scorecard I’ve been keeping of similar recent FDA going away gifts to big business.)
“Once again, the Bush administration seems intent on ignoring sound science on mercury poisoning,” Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) told the Tribune. “This backroom bouquet for special interests should be stopped in its tracks.”
Fortunately, until the party ends, there is one unbiased source consumers can turn to. The Environmental Defense Fund publishes a terrific, easy-to-understand chart showing which species are safe to eat and with what frequency. Download it and keep it near your shopping list to make this holiday season both happy and healthy.
Other News on the Fish Front
Back in June, Greenpeace issued its first report card on American food retailers’ sensitivity to seafood sustainability. There were howls of outrage from the 20 grocery chains surveyed. Little wonder since every single one of them flunked.
Six months later, we come to the end of another term, and the good (but not great) news is that four of the miscreants have buckled down and pulled those grades into passing territory—barely. The most improved fishmongers: Whole Foods, Ahold, Target, and Harris Teeter. But that leaves 16 others sitting at the bottom of the class. Click here to see how your local supermarket performed.
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