To meet public health standards and ensure the safety of infants and developing fetuses, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Action Level for mercury in commercial fish should be reduced from 1,000 parts per billion, according to a Purdue University study.
The authors of the study on canned fish, which appeared in the December 2004 issue of Journal of Food Science, consider this reduction a way for women of child-bearing age who regularly eat substantially high amounts of canned tuna to benefit from its important omega-3 fatty acids and remain safe from exposing their babies to unhealthy levels of mercury.