Campaigners are demanding a complete ban on serving canned tuna in hospitals and schools after toxic levels of mercury were detected in the shop favourite.
Environmental advocates also accuse food safety agencies and tuna companies of being a “cynical lobby” that serves “economic interests… to the detriment of health.”
For five decades, the mercury threshold has been three times higher for tuna than for other fish “without the slightest health justification,” added a spokesperson for Bloom, whose objective is to preserve the marine environment.
The calls come after Bloom and consumer rights organization Foodwatch published an alarming report revealing how widespread the contamination is.
As MailOnline revealed last week, tests carried out on almost 150 cans purchased in France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Britain found that they all contained mercury and that 57 per cent exceeded safe limits for many fish.
Exposure to the metal can affect brain development, cause life-threatening lung damage, cancers, and cause birth defects if consumed by pregnant women.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), which considers it a major public health problem, at the level of asbestos and arsenic.
Researchers claimed they had discovered “a colossal risk to public health” and urged governments to take “urgent” action.
Studies have found that at very high doses, some forms of mercury can trigger the development of various types of tumors in rats and mice.
The average European consumes more than 2.8 kilos of tuna per year, or approximately 25 cans.
Karine Jacquemart, executive director of consumer rights organization Foodwatch France, said: “What we end up on our plates is a colossal risk to public health that is not seriously considered.
“We will not give up until we have a more protective European standard.”
About four-fifths of the mercury released into the atmosphere by natural and human causes, such as burning coal, ends up in the ocean, where some is converted by tiny organisms into a toxic compound known as methylmercury.
This methylmercury moves up the food chain and accumulates in high concentrations in top predators.
Because tuna (and other predators or longer-lived species, such as sharks or swordfish) are higher up the food chain, they eat smaller fish and accumulate more mercury over time.
Under current EU and UK laws, the limit for mercury in tuna is 1 mg/kg and 0.3 mg/kg for other fish such as cod.
But the canning process means the mercury concentration doubles or triples, according to Bloom.
Exposure to the metal can affect brain development, cause life-threatening lung damage, and has been linked to some types of cancer.
In a statement, Bloom said: ‘Since the 1970s, public authorities and the powerful tuna lobby have consciously chosen to favor the economic interests of industrial tuna fishing to the detriment of the health of more than hundreds of millions of tuna consumers in Europe.
“This cynical pressure has led to the setting of an “acceptable” mercury threshold three times higher for tuna than for other fish species such as cod, without the slightest health justification for a different threshold.”
Bloom and Foodwatch are calling for a stricter mercury limit in tuna, as for other species, of 0.3 mg/kg instead of the current 1 mg/kg.
And they say tuna products should be banned in hospitals, including maternity wards, schools and nursing homes to protect vulnerable people.
Mark Willis, head of chemical contaminants at the UK Food Standards Agency, told The Independent: ‘We advise those who are trying to have a baby or who are pregnant to consume no more than four cans of tuna per week or no more than two tuna steaks per week.
“This is because tuna contains higher levels of mercury than other fish.”
A spokesman for Europêche, which represents fishing fleets, denied the report’s claims, calling it “misleading.”
They added: ‘Canned tuna products offered to EU consumers strictly comply with European regulations, which are based on scientific criteria for safe maximum daily intakes.
“These thresholds are carefully set by experts from the European Food Safety Authority to ensure consumer safety.”
