Japanese ignore tuna report
A U.S. news article told of high mercury levels in sushi. In the sushi capital, it's business as usual.
TOKYO - Kazuhiro Ukiuchi loves his tuna sushi, and he tries to have it once a week - despite the common knowledge in Japan that the popular fish can contain toxic mercury.
"I wouldn't worry about it," he said, strolling through Tokyo's main fish market yesterday. "We're not talking about eating 10 tuna sushi every day - in which case I might be a little bit worried."
The New York Times, in a story published Wednesday, reported that eight of 44 pieces of sushi sampled from local restaurants and stores had mercury concentrations over 1 part per million (ppm), a level the paper reported would allow the Food and Drug Administration to take the fish off the market.
That report, in addition to others, has been met with a collective yawn in Japan, the world's undisputed sushi capital.
Yuichiro Ejima, a Japan Health Ministry official in charge of food safety, said the most dangerous thing he saw in the report was that it could spread "groundless rumors."
"Seafood is an important source of nutrition," he added.
The New York City Health Department released survey findings in July that showed one in four New York City adults had elevated blood mercury levels, which they said were closely tied to fish consumption.
The agency reported that while such levels in pregnant women could increase the risk of cognitive delays for their children, they pose little if any risk to the health of normal adults.
After the Times story was published, a spokeswoman at the office said its advice to New Yorkers about tuna sushi had not changed. A statement reassured residents that "no one needs to stop eating fish, but some people may need to change the type and amount they eat."
In Japan, the government exempts tuna from its legal limits on mercury in seafood because it's not caught coastally.
Rules ban many types of seafood if the concentration of mercury exceeds 0.4 ppm. The limit is 0.3 ppm for its more dangerous derivative, methylmercury.
The restriction was set in the 1970s after outbreaks of industrial mercury poisoning in the southern town of Minamata that sickened thousands and caused hideous birth defects.
Victims fought for more than a decade before the government and the Chisso Corp., which contaminated fishing grounds, acknowledged the poisoning and provided compensation.