METALLOPATHY Evidence on heavy metals in people

Static evidence pages. Grades A to F. Sources named.

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Mercury and fish

How much mercury is in canned tuna/fish, and how much is safe?

EFSA set a tolerable weekly intake of 1.3 µg/kg body weight for methylmercury and 4 µg/kg body weight for inorganic mercury. EPA's methylmercury reference dose is 0.0001 mg/kg/day. A mercury concentration in canned tuna was not verified in the saved sources, so no serving limit for tuna is stated.

Intake values

The EFSA figures are recorded from the 2012 abstract and press release. doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2012.2985. The EPA dose is on the saved IRIS page. EPA IRIS. Blood mercury in NHANES is on the mercury page. None of those is a micrograms-per-can figure.

Related pages

Sources

  1. EFSA 2012, doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2012.2985
  2. EPA IRIS methylmercury, substance 73

Heavy Metal Index

Heavy Metal Index: canned tuna. This Heavy Metal Index URL returned HTTP 200 on 15 October 2026. Figures on this page are not copied from that index. They come from the sources named above.

What's safe to buy

The Heavy Metal Tested and Certified public register listed no licensees on 15 October 2026. That page reported 0 certified brands and 0 certified products, and it stated that no brand has completed the three-lot baseline. A specimen layout on the register is an illustration, not a licensee. This page does not name or rank any brand.

The program states that certification is a measurement of a product against a published limit, not a statement that the product is safe. If a licensee is later listed for this category, it will be on the register.

This page summarizes cited documents. It does not diagnose or prescribe. Reviewed 15 October 2026.