On Tuesday 29 October, after an 18-month investigation, the NGO Bloom denounced the “widespread contamination of tuna with mercury, a powerful neurotoxin that is extremely dangerous to human health”.
The NGO, which analysed nearly 150 cans from five European countries (Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, France and Italy), describes this as a real “public health scandal” that the tuna lobbies are trying to sweep under the carpet.
According to Bloom’s investigation, the public authorities and the tuna lobby have favoured the “economic interests” of industrial tuna fishing “to the detriment of the health” of consumers.
The result of this lobbying was the setting of a mercury threshold three times higher for tuna than for other fish species, “without any health justification whatsoever” (1 mg/kg for tuna compared with 0.3 mg/kg for cod, for example).
Laboratory tests show that 100% of the cans are contaminated with mercury. More than one in two cans tested (57%) exceeded the strictest maximum mercury limit of 0.3 mg/kg. A can of Petit Navire has a record content of 3.9 mg/kg.
To see Bloom’s investigation: https://aeur.eu/f/e2o (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)