Man sues over 'mercury poisoning' from tuna cans

A man who ate 10 cans of tuna a week for nearly two years is suing the canned food company Bumble Bee Foods for allegedly giving him mercury poisoning. Lee Porrazzo, of Westchester, New York, said he and his friend Roland Muccini would make regular trips to their local Stop & Shop store to load up on cans of tuna. "There was tuna in my diet every day, just about," Mr Porrazzo said. "I thought it was the cleanest source of protein."

But the 48-year-old BMW car salesman said he was soon plagued by a mystery malady that gave him chest pains and sent him to the hospital "believing he was having a heart attack," according to his White Plains federal court suit. He is blaming it on the canned tuna and wants unspecified damages for breach of warranty and negligence from the fish cannery. But he is also suing the supermarket chain - for putting the tuna on sale. Mr Porrazzo says he started eating the seafood in January 2006 because Bumble Bee commercials called it "heart healthy" and the brand was "usually on sale" for $1 a can.

No one could figure out what was ailing Mr Porrazzo until his doctor ordered a "heavy metals" blood test in October 2008 that revealed a "dangerously high" mercury level of 23 micrograms per litre, more than twice the normal amount, his suit says. "One day I got a call from the (state) Health Department," he said. "They said, 'Normally we don't contact people, but your levels are so high we had to contact you.' I was taken aback and I was scared." The Health Department staffer also told him to stop eating tuna.

Experts warn not to eat more than 140g of tuna a week to avoid high mercury levels. Mr Porrazzo said his mercury levels went back to normal a month later, but he remains concerned over potential long-term health problems stemming from his intake of the element. A Bumble Bee spokeswoman said that, to the company's knowledge, there's "never been a case of mercury toxicity from eating commercial seafood in the US" and that "alarmism" (sic) on this issue "can have an adverse impact" on people's health.