Question 1980 — health

Summary

Mr. Benoît Biteau draws the attention of the Minister of Health and Access to Care to the need to establish standards that sufficiently protect the health of citizens and limit the quantities of mercury present in tuna. Tuna fishing as it is practiced in the vast majority today is dangerous in several respects: overfishing, degradation of the climate, biodiversity, ecosystems and therefore health. of the Indian Ocean, amplification of the precariousness of the people of the countries of the South... there is no shortage of examples. The harmful effects of this fishing do not stop there: tuna is also at the heart of a serious public health problem. The Bloom association published on Tuesday October 29, 2024 the particularly alarming results of tests carried out on 150 cans of tuna marketed in France and Europe. 100% of them were contaminated with mercury. A study carried out between 2014 and 2016 had already revealed the contamination of 100% of children and 99.6% with this substance considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the 10 most worrying for public health, along with asbestos or arsenic. However, it is proven that in Europe, the consumption of tuna is the main source of this toxic exposure. However, it is a fish consumed massively, with nearly 64,000 tonnes sold each year in France. Nearly 8 years later, this real health scandal remains. It is the result of a major failure of the French and European system for regulating contaminants in tuna. While scientists and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recognize the dangers of mercury, the exception regime granted to tuna during the review European standards on contaminants in 2022 remain unchanged and worrying. This decision, taken under the influence of the tuna fishing industry, escaped the control of the European Parliament, incapable of calling into question the implementing regulations issued in opacity by the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed (SCoPAFF), an organization which had already found itself in the heart of the controversies over glyphosate, neonicotinoids and “bee tests”. Thus, while cod, sardines, anchovies, mackerel or herring must respect a maximum mercury content of 0.3 mg/kg and seafood products must, in general, respect a maximum content of 0.5 mg/kg, the maximum mercury content in tuna can go up to 1 mg/kg. But Bloom's revelations indicate that the current standard was not set to protect health but to maximize the volume of fish on the market. The benefit-risk argument put forward by manufacturers remains completely false, since it is precisely the fish subject to a more protective restriction than tuna which are composed of greater quantities of omega 3. It is inconceivable, while the warnings from scientists are increasing every day. pressing, to accept a diet in which a mercury content nine times higher for canned tuna than for sardines or cod is considered acceptable. The MP therefore wishes to know whether, as a precautionary principle and pending a review of the European framework in this area, the Minister is counting, as France did for bisphenol A, as we do today for eternal pollutants, activate a safeguard clause or adopt specific national legislation so that the standard that applies in France on mercury contamination of tuna, fresh or canned, is aligned with the strictest European standard for seafood products (0.3 mg/kg). The fundamental right to protect the health of citizens and the trust placed in institutions are at stake. He wants to know his position on the subject.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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