From: bobsapp1@home.com
Sent: Monday, February 12, 2001 7:52 PM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Methylmercury Contamination of Fish, FDA Docket No. OOP-1411/CP
1



Food and Drug Administration, Dockets Management Branch
5630 Fishers Lane, Room 1061
Rockville, MD 20857

Dear Food and Drug Administration, Dockets Management Branch,

I am writing today to ask you to please help protect
America's kids from birth defects caused by contaminated
fish. Each year more than 60,000 children are born
at risk for neurological problems due to exposure to
low-level methylmercury from seafood eaten by their
mothers, according to the National Academy of Sciences.
That is totally unacceptable. 

Consumers know that fish can be important in a healthy
diet. But that is only true if the fish doesn't contain
chemical hazards. You need to act now to tighten FDA's
allowable exposure level so it is consistent with the
standard that the EPA and National Academy of Sciences
recommend. Then you need to increase the agency's monitoring
and remove seafood from the market that violates this
new, tougher standard. I support the petition by the
Center for Science in the Public Interest to take these
steps. Approve the petition and give fish consumers
a break from this poison, please! 

We also need to come to grips with the sale and use
of mercury worldwide. In a recent article in Chemical
& Engineering News magazine (2/5/01, pp 21-24) the
shipment of 130 tons of mercury by HoltraChem from
the US to India hightlighted the potential problems
of selling mercury to a country where environmental
protection may not be as tight as ours. Even though
India has a legitimate use for the mercury, it doesn't
make any sense to me to spread a toxic element worldwide.
Let's keep it in storage where it won't contaminate
anything. 



Sincerely,


Robert Sapp
1905 Walden Ct.
Columbia, Missouri 65203