The FDA Protects Animals from Mercury but Not Humans

A good way for Dr. Hamburg (FDA’s new Commissioner) to begin would be to reverse years of FDA inaction on mercury amalgam – a step she assured Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) she would take in response to his question during the confirmation process. Inexplicably, the FDA zealously protects animals from mercury exposure, while taking almost a laissez-faire approach to human exposure to mercury.

In 2002, the agency pulled from the market a mercury-containing ointment for horses, and proclaimed zero tolerance for mercury in any product used to treat an animal. The FDA ruled that mercury is so toxic to mammals, it had no duty to prove its presence actually harms horses.

When it comes to mercury-containing products marketed to the humans however the FDA’s zeal evaporates. The FDA requires mercury critics to prove actual and widespread harm -- the shocking opposite of its position on protecting animals. Interestingly, the FDA policies ignore warnings from the Environmental Protection Agency that one in seven American women of childbearing age has so much mercury she is at risk of having a brain-damaged child.