According to Japan’s Fisheries Agency the level of mercury found in tuna is not posing threat to public health. This has disputed a report already published in the New York Times that mercury in tuna sold in Manhattan exceeded safety levels. The report said that tuna sushi contained 1.4 parts per million of methyl mercury, in excess of the Food and Drug Administration’s limit of 1 part per million.
Being world’s biggest market for tuna Japan is not showing any signs of panic and is not taking any action in response to the report. The Japanese government doesn’t consider the mercury levels in tuna dangerous, informed Teruo Tagaki, the chief of the Fisheries Agency’s products safety office.
Tagaki presented an example of 2005 study by Japan’s Food Safety Commission that says 100 micrograms of mercury each week presented no risk to health for a person weighing 50 kgs. But Japan’s Food Safety Commission in its report in 2005 had warn pregnant women to be careful not to eat too much tuna, as the methyl mercury has “critical effects on the developing central nervous system.”
It is found that the city of Minamata in Japan the world’s worst known case of mercury poisoning, as thousands of people died after eating tuna that ahs been caught from Minamata Bay.
