NY RESTAURATEUR MORE DILIGENT THAN PEDIATRICIANS

              Is your pediatrician as diligent as a NYC restaurateur?  Read about high levels of mercury found in NYC restaurant tuna (Sushi) HERE.  From the article:

Both Drew Nieporent, a managing partner of Nobu Next Door and Andy Arons, an owner of Gourmet Garage, were shocked by the Times' findings.

"I'm startled by this," said Nieporent. "Anything that might endanger any customer of ours, we'd be inclined to take off the menu immediately and get to the bottom of it."

How come these articles get quotes from Toxicologists and the autism/mercury articles get stuck with epidemiologists?

Comments

[John]

Quoting Bolger - "While I understand it might seem that way they have spent a great deal of time and resources dealing with that issue and believe me are not taking it lightly."

It seems to me that they are undertaking some very serious study of the problem, the Center for Biologics that is. How many years has it been now exactly? And how many children have succumbed to autism spectrum disorder while we wait for them to be done spending their time and resources dealing with "that" issue. Seemingly its easier to jump on mercury-filled tuna than mercury-filled kids. Have the time and resources been lost to misplaced priorities perhaps? Whose priorities exactly are channeling that time and those resources?

[Kelli Ann Davis]

This is the FDA expert quoted in the article.

I’ll let you know if I get “the study” (lol)

----- Original Message -----
From: Kelli Ann Davis
To: Bolger, Philip M
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 12:47 PM
Subject: Re: Recent Mercury Findings In NY Sushi

Agreed. Two different types of mercury. But mercury, nonetheless. You are an expert on the toxicity of this chemical. I've attached a Material Data Sheet on Thimerosal. This substance is considered extremely TOXIC.

And as you're probably aware, the FDA is supposed to regulate components of vaccines and make sure they are PROVEN SAFE.

As an expert on mercury, can you honestly say that you are aware of any study that DEMONSTRATES the SAFETY of mercury -- at ANY level???

Just ONE study will be enough.

Thanks,

Kelli


----- Original Message -----
From: Bolger, Philip M
To: Kelli Ann Davis
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 12:32 PM
Subject: RE: Recent Mercury Findings In NY Sushi

While I understand it might seem that way they have spent a great deal of time and resources dealing with that issue and believe me are not taking it lightly. Bear in mind that the levels of exposure are very different and the forms of mercury are not the same.

P. Michael Bolger, Ph.D., D.A.B.T.
Chief, Chemical Hazards Assessment Team
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
US Food and Drug Administration

________________________________________
From: Kelli Ann Davis [mailto:kellianndavis@hotmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 12:20 PM
To: Bolger, Philip M
Subject: Re: Recent Mercury Findings In NY Sushi
Thanks for the information.

Part of my point I was trying to make in my e-mail: Isn't it a bit ludicrous for one branch of the FDA to be concerned about toxic amounts of mercury in fish, and yet another branch seems to think injecting mercury into small children and infants is a non-issue?

How is the public supposed to trust the FDA when they get that type of "mixed" message?

Kelli
----- Original Message -----
From: Bolger, Philip M
To: Kelli Ann Davis
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 12:13 PM
Subject: RE: Recent Mercury Findings In NY Sushi

I am in the Center for Foods and Applied Nutrition and we do not deal with vaccines. They are handled by another FDA center, specifically the Center for Biologics.

P. Michael Bolger, Ph.D., D.A.B.T.
Chief, Chemical Hazards Assessment Team
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
US Food and Drug Administration

________________________________________
From: Kelli Ann Davis [mailto:kellianndavis@hotmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 11:35 AM
To: Bolger, Philip M
Subject: Recent Mercury Findings In NY Sushi
Importance: High
Dr. Bolger,

The New York Times reported the following:

"In 2004, the Food and Drug Administration joined with the Environmental Protection Agency to warn children and women who may become pregnant to limit their consumption of certain varieties of canned tuna because the mercury it contained might damage the developing nervous system"

Dr. P. Michael Bolger, a toxicologist who is head of the chemical hazard assessment team at the Food and Drug Administration, said the agency was reviewing its seafood mercury warnings."

Would you please tell me what your team is specifically doing in regards to assessing the chemical hazards in vaccines given the joint statement issued above?

Any information would be helpful.

Kelli Ann Davis
Washington, DC

[Tim Kasemodel]

The Times reported the restaraunts "all had mercury in excess of one part per million, the "action level" at which the FDA can take food off the market. (In recent years, the FDA has rarely, if ever, taken any tuna off the market.)"

One part per million, or 100 ppb concentration ingested, and they are not concerned about 50,000 ppb injected. Interesting.

I put together a handout for our legislators calculating how much light tuna (.12 ppm) a 200 lb person would need to eat to be exposed to the same amount of mercury (62.5 mcg) that our 12 lb children recieved at 2 months. It is 49 six ounce cans or 147 servings - since we do not absorb all this mercury it is likely a MUCH higher number of servings.

They always say a flu shot is safe as eating a tuna sandwich - Try 147 tuna sandwiches.

Yummy.

[melissa]

Anyone care to wager how long it will be till we see the next "Tuna - the miracle food" study in the press? My guess it will be less than a week.

[Kelli Ann Davis]

Do you think we might get away with testing JUST 44 vials to make the same point the Times did?

I mean, it didn’t seem like they needed a complicated protocol to “prove” that the Sushi wasn’t tampered with while THEY did THEIR testing. (Okay, so maybe a few samples were eaten along the way, I mean why 44? Why not 50?)

Anyways, maybe we should just hire a reporter or two from the Times and pay them to stay with the vials all the way through the testing process.

And then we could make the same broad based conclusions as they did: experts BELIEVE similar results would be observed elsewhere.

Taaaa dahhhh! Science 101.

And I thought I didn't like Science.

[Kate]

From the article -

"In 2004, the Food and Drug Administration joined with the Environmental Protection Agency to warn children and women who may become pregnant to limit their consumption of certain varieties of canned tuna because the mercury it contained might damage the developing nervous system."

It boggles my mind that this same FDA was the one that took no action when the CDC recommended that pregnant women and infants be given mercury laden flu shots. Remind me if that recommendation was made the same year, was it 2004? I wonder why there is this blatant double standard? Should we ask the FDA this?