Question

I have always enjoyed eating tuna fish. Unfortunately, a study of the mercury content of canned tuna in 2010 found that chunk white tuna contains 0.6 ppm Hg and chunk light tuna contains 0.14 ppm. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends no more than 0.1 microgram Hg/ kg body weight per day. I weigh 68 kg. How often may I eat a can containing 6 oz of chunk white tuna so that I do not average more than 0.1 microgram Hg/ kg body weight per day? If I switch to chunk light tuna, how often may I eat one can?

Answer 1

To avoid exceeding the EPA's recommended mercury intake, a 68 kg individual can consume a can of chunk white tuna every 15 days and a can of chunk light tuna every 3 to 4 days.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine how often you may consume a can of chunk white tuna without exceeding the recommended mercury intake of 0.1 micrograms per kg of body weight per day, we must first calculate your daily mercury limit based on your weight of 68 kg. Your daily limit would be 6.8 micrograms of mercury. Since each 6 oz can of chunk white tuna contains 0.6 ppm Hg, we convert this to micrograms to find out how much mercury is in one can. There are 170.097 grams in a 6 oz can, so it would contain about 102.058 micrograms of mercury. To stay within limits, you could consume a can roughly every 15 days (102.058 micrograms per can divided by 6.8 micrograms per day equals about 15 days).

Switching to chunk light tuna, which has 0.14 ppm of mercury, yields different results. Following the same process, a 6 oz can will have approximately 23.814 micrograms of mercury. Thus, you can safely consume a can every 3 to 4 days (23.814 micrograms per can divided by 6.8 micrograms per day equals about 3.5 days).