The seafood lobby’s denial that the risk exists, however, has significantly muddied the waters. Consumer education about mercury risks and the mercury content of different fish choices, aimed at people who eat above-average amounts of fish, can reduce this risk.

They were generally not aware that the types of fish they chose to eat-tuna, swordfish, sea bass and halibut, among others-contained enough mercury to cause toxic symptoms, if eaten too often. Most of the cases analyzed in Over The Limit were health-conscious individuals who felt their high-fish diet was a healthy choice. Mercury Policy Project (MPP) published a report in 2008, Over The Limit, which reviewed 24 case histories of people who got methylmercury poisoning by repeatedly eating high-mercury fish. At least two case reports have been published in medical journals. Such cases are rare they almost certainly occur in less than one-tenth of one percent of the population, i.e., less than 1 person in 1,000. Methylmercury poisoning does occur, in people who eat commercially-caught fish, in the United States. The claim is also sometimes stated, “There has never been a single documented case of methylmercury poisoning in the United States from eating commercially-caught fish.” Fable: The Mercury “Scare” is Media and Environmentalist Hypeįacts: This often-repeated public relations claim is sometimes qualified with the phrase “No one in the United States has ever been harmed…,” probably because the studies documenting the adverse effects of mercury in populations with high (commercially-caught) fish diets were done in other countries.Fable: People Are Eating Less Fish Because of Mercury Warnings.Fable: Mercury in Ocean Fish Poses Little Risk Because it Occurs Naturally.Fable: Canned Light Tuna is a “Low-Mercury” Fish.Fable: All Fish Are Alike There Are No “Good Fish” or “Bad Fish”.Fable: Fish That Meets the FDA Action Level for Mercury Poses No Risk.Fable: The EPA Reference Dose includes a 10-fold “safety margin”.

Fable: The EPA Reference Dose is for lifetime exposure.

Fable: The EPA Reference Dose is 58 micrograms of mercury per liter of blood.

Fable: No One Has Ever Been Harmed by Mercury in Commercially-Caught Fish.

Fable: Mercury Risks are “Hypothetical”.

Fable: Pregnant Women Should Eat Lots of Fish, Because the Benefits to Their Babies’ Brains Will Far Outweigh Any Risks from Mercury.

Fable: The Benefits of Eating Fish far Outweigh the Minuscule Risks from Mercury.

Are Mercury Warnings Bad for Public Health?.

Mercury Levels in Different Fish and Shellfish.

How Well-Substantiated are Mercury Risks?.

Mercury poisoning tuna