Comments Submitted to USDA on Excluding Tuna From WIC

MPP and an number of other health and environmental groups concerned with mercury pollution and with health risks to people today provided comment to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on its “Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC): Revisions to the WIC Packages- Proposed Rule.” While applauding USDA for its proposed rule to discontinue WIC offerings of “white” canned tuna, we strongly recommend that “light” canned tuna also be eliminated from the WIC program. Recent tests indicate that some light canned tuna has similarly high mercury levels—or higher levels—than “white” canned tuna and therefore, under the Institute of Medicine criteria, would indeed “pose a mercury hazard.”