Originally published September 8 2005
Bush administration, FDA stand against California lawsuit to require mercury warnings on tuna
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
After a lawsuit was filed by the California State Attorney General Bill Lockyer to try to get tuna manufacturers to put warning labels about mercury content on their products, the FDA and officials from the Bush administration sided with tuna manufacturers against the lawsuit, The San Francisco Chronicle reports, saying California shouldn't interfere with the FDA's approach of advising consumers on risks of consuming mercury with fish.
Lockyer, whose office filed the suit in June 2004 under a California anti- toxics law, said he had received a letter this week from the head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration declaring that enforcement of the state law would conflict with federal law and would mislead consumers.
"California should not interfere with FDA's carefully considered approach of advising consumers of both the benefits and possible risks of eating seafood,'' FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford said in the letter.
The FDA has issued public advisories about mercury in fish and recommended limits on consumption by children and women of child-bearing age.
But many health and environmental groups consider the FDA standards too lax, and Lockyer spokesman Tom Dresslar said the federal advisories were far less effective at reaching the public than the retail-store warnings sought by the state.
Dresslar said the major tuna companies targeted by the suit -- makers of Chicken of the Sea, StarKist and Bumble Bee brands -- had given notice that they planned to seek dismissal of the suit on the same grounds cited by Crawford.
A similar argument by makers of nicotine patches succeeded in April 2004 when the California Supreme Court ruled that FDA-approved warning labels for the products precluded the state from requiring additional warnings.
The suit over canned tuna, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, is one of several by Lockyer that invoked Proposition 65, a 1986 state ballot measure, against mercury in seafood.
The mineral enters water or air as waste from mines, power plants and solid-waste incinerators and works its way up the food chain, with the largest concentrations found in large predatory ocean fish, including tuna.
The cases marked the first time that Prop.
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