She was 21 years old.
Tuna has always been her favourite food, but we could never afford to feed it to her very often. In her old age she lost the ability to eat solid foods, and tuna was her preference, so it's what I bought for her.
No warning labels.
No PSAs.
It has taken me 30 years of my life to just now figure out that canned fish products contain highly toxic mercury.
A quick google rabbit hole has taught me that Tuna companies have put in work over the years to suppress this information.
“Consumers are really the winners in this case,” said Forrest Hainline, a San Francisco attorney who represented the tuna canners.
The companies say warning signs or labels would scare consumers off from a healthy, economical food.
Testimony in the case showed that after testing children in the North Atlantic's Faroe Islands for about 20 years, scientists have concluded that when pregnant women are exposed to fairly low levels of mercury, their children have reduced IQs. Federal guidelines for fish consumption are based on the Faroe Island tests.
But the tuna industry contended that instead of using the studies of children, which were endorsed by a National Academy of Sciences panel, a safe level for mercury should be based on older tests of laboratory rats, which found higher levels harmed brains. The judge agreed in his ruling.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2006-05-13-0605130095-story.html
“With all the over-the-top rhetoric about mercury in fish, this common-sense ruling should finally stop most of the self-appointed food activists from frightening consumers,” said David Martosko of the Center for Consumer Freedom, an industry-backed non-profit group.
“Scientifically challenged environmental activists and litigation-hungry attorneys have been exaggerating the impact of mercury in fish for years. It's about time they backed off.”
https://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/food/article/No-warning-labels-for-tuna-judge-rules-1203436.php
The US Tuna Foundation (which recently merged with the National Fisheries Institute) also enlisted spokespeople such as celebrity pediatrician Dr. Lillian Beard, who earned $6,000 a month for two days of work promoting canned tuna, plus $10,000 to serve on a nutrition advisory council for six months. In October 2004, Beard wrote a column in Pediatric News that suggested giving children “a little warm milk or tuna fish before bedtime” to help make them sleepy. She made no mention of her industry ties.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2008/09/why-mercury-tuna-still-legal/
My blood is boiling right now.
I need to go smoke some weed.
Edit: Research the foods that you feed to your pets and put into your body. The corporations can and do legally lie to you to suppress the truth.
R.I.P. Milky, you stuck by my side longer than any human ever has.