Mercury, Tuna and Big Business

Tuna seems like an all-American food. Who didn’t grow up on tuna noodle casserole and tuna salad sandwiches? Americans eat 3 pounds of tuna per capita per year. Low in fat, high in protein, packed with brain-boosting omega-3 fatty acids, some tuna cans even come stamped with the American Heart Association’s seal of approval.

But if you’re having tuna for lunch, there’s a good chance that it’s contaminated with mercury, a toxic heavy metal. Some of the tuna sold in the United States has twice the mercury that the Environmental Protection Agency has deemed safe. Efforts to force the tuna industry to disclose their product’s mercury content on the label have, um, floundered.

To find out why, we check-in with Stephanie Mencimer. She’s an investigative reporter with Mother Jones magazine, where she published an article on mercury tuna. We also get a response from National Fisheries Institute spokesman Gavin Gibbons.

After hearing Stephanie’s take on tuna, you might think differently about buying fish for supper. There could be mercury in it, or perhaps PCBs. Or maybe the fishery it comes from isn’t doing so well. Some fish are good, some aren’t, and it can be difficult to remember which is which. Now you don't have to remember, though. You can let your fingers do the fishing, as Living on Earth's Ashley Ahearn learned when she dialed-a-fish at her local supermarket.

(Photo by romannphoto)