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Tuna firms don't have to warn of mercury: judge

Posted on: Monday, 15 May 2006, 07:12 CDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Tuna companies do not have to put labels on their cans warning the fish contains mercury, a San Francisco judge ruled in rebuffing a lawsuit brought by California's attorney general.

In a Thursday decision publicized on Friday, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Robert Dondero ruled against state Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who in 2004 sought to ban the sale of canned tuna without mercury warnings.

Lockyer sued Del Monte Foods, maker of StarKist tuna; Bumble Bee Seafoods, a unit of Connors Brothers Income Fund of Canada, maker of Bumble Bee tuna; and Tri-Union Seafoods, maker of Chicken of the Sea tuna.

The complaint alleged the firms violated state Proposition 65, an initiative approved by voters in 1986 to require firms to issue warnings before exposing people to "known carcinogens or reproductive toxins."

Scientists have found that nearly all fish contain trace amounts of mercury but some species, including tuna and swordfish, can have higher levels.

"The judge has made a common-sense ruling based on nutrition and science," tuna industry lawyer Forrest Hainlinesaid in a statement. "It's easy to see that canned tuna has always been an extremely healthy and important food source despite extremists' attempts to raise irrelevant and misleading arguments."

Source: REUTERS

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