To: Seafood Industry
Fr: Pamela Tom - University of California, Sea Grant Extension Program
This past week the California Attorney General (Bill Lockyer) received a
letter from the FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford who said that the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration "has been given broad authority to regulate
the labels of food products," and a state has no authority to take a
stricter approach.
Based on California Proposition 65 (Safe Drinking Water and Toxic
Enforcement Act of 1986 -- intended to protect California citizens and the
State's drinking water sources from chemicals known to cause cancer, birth
defects or other reproductive harm, and to inform citizens about exposures
to such chemicals), in 2004 the California Attorney General filed a
lawsuit against three major tuna companies. The lawsuit would have
required the tuna companies to provide warnings on the dangers of mercury
in their products that are sold in California.
The complete article is listed in today's "San Francisco Chronicle" (Bay
Area, Section B) and can be found on SFGate.com here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/08/20/BAGJCEASDU1.DTL
Information on mercury in seafood is available on the Seafood Network
Information Center web site at:
http://seafood.ucdavis.edu/organize/mercurylinks.htm
Specific information on Proposition 65 is on the California Office of
Health Hazard Assessment: http://www.oehha.org/prop65.html
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