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Lockyer reportedly filed the action Friday in San Francisco Superior Court under California’s Proposition 65, a 1986 initiative requiring businesses to notify customers if they are being exposed to toxic chemicals.
"Generally," Lockyer is quoted as saying, "fish are an important source of protein and lay a prominent role in many Californians' diet. But consumers deserve to know when they are being exposed to chemicals that can cause cancer, birth defects and reproductive harm."
The lawsuit names Safeway, Kroger Co., Albertson's, Trader Joe's and Whole Foods Markets.
Mercury enters water or air as waste from a number of sources, including mining, power plants and solid-waste incinerators. It then works up the food chain and accumulates in various food fish species such as ahi tuna, albacore tuna, swordfish and shark, potentially affecting the human brain and nervous system. That can lead to behavioural problems and loss of intellectual capacity in children. It has also been linked in recent studies to impairments of immune and reproductive systems and cardiovascular disease. Compounds of methyl-mercury, an organic form of mercury, are listed by the state as cancer-causing substances.
According to newspaper report in California, Lockyer cited a recent study that found high concentrations of mercury in the blood of affluent Bay Area residents who ate large amounts of fish for their health. The levels of mercury supposedly exceeded safety levels set by the US Environmental Protection Agency, according to study author Dr Jane Hightower, who also reported that her patients' mercury levels plummeted when they changed their diets.
Lockyer's action apparently doesn’t seek warning labels on canned tuna though – only on fresh. "We don't have good, hard evidence on mercury levels in canned tuna," a spokesperson for Lockyer is cited as saying.
The newspaper report notes though that a science panel recommended last July that the US Food and Drug Administration warn pregnant women that eating large amounts of canned tuna may cause foetal damage from mercury. The FDA already advises pregnant women, and women who might become pregnant, not to eat swordfish, shark, king mackerel or tilefish, also called golden snapper. Those women should eat no more than 12 ounces of any kind of fish per week, the agency says.
Proposition 65 violations carry civil penalties of up to USD 2,500 a day for the four-year period preceding the suit, launched in response to complaints from two Bay area organisations. Lockyer’s spokesperson said though the chief goal of the lawsuit was to require warning labels.
"We have been in contact with representatives of the grocery chains," the official said. "We notified them that we were filing the complaint. We expect to continue having discussions."
By Quentin Dodd
FIS North America
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