I 
108TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4762 
To require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to ensure that 
the public is provided adequate notice and education on the effects 
of exposure to mercury through the development of health advisories 
and by requiring that such appropriate advisories be posted, or made 
readily available, at all businesses that sell fresh, frozen, and canned 
fish and seafood where the potential for mercury exposure exists. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 6, 2004 
Mr. PALLONE introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To require the Secretary of Health and Human Services 
to ensure that the public is provided adequate notice 
and education on the effects of exposure to mercury 
through the development of health advisories and by 
requiring that such appropriate advisories be posted, or 
made readily available, at all businesses that sell fresh, 
frozen, and canned fish and seafood where the potential 
for mercury exposure exists. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Mercury Health Advi-
sory Act of 2004’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find-
ings: 
(1) Mercury is a persistent, bioaccumulative 
heavy metal that poses a significant risk to human 
health, wildlife, and the environment. 
(2) Mercury discharges into the atmosphere and 
surface oceans have increased two-to-five fold since 
the beginning of the industrialized period due to 
human activities. 
(3) Substantial evidence is accumulating that 
exposure to methyl-mercury is widespread in the 
general public and occurring at higher than health- 
based levels of concern according to the Food and 
Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection 
Agency, and the World Health Organization. Fish 
and seafood caught or sold in the United States are 
contaminated with methyl-mercury, a toxic element 
that may cause neurological damage and other 
health-related problems as a result of fish or seafood 
consumption. 
(4) According to the 1997 Environmental Pro-
tection Agency Mercury Report to Congress, mer-
cury levels in the following fish, at least occasionally, 
exceeded the Food and Drug Administration’s ‘‘ac-
tion level’’ limit of 1 part per million: tilefish, king 
mackerel, shark, swordfish, tuna, lobster, red snap-
per, 
saltwater 
and 
freshwater 
bass, 
bluefish, 
bluegills, catfish, crappie, groupers, hake, halibut, 
northern pike, walleye, largemouth bass, pompano, 
snook, sunfish, and other finfish. 
(5) The Food and Drug Administration advises 
pregnant women and women of childbearing age not 
to eat shark, king mackerel, tilefish, and swordfish 
and to limit consumption of all other fish to 12 
ounces per week. The Food and Drug Administra-
tion advises other persons to limit their consumption 
of shark and swordfish to no more than 7 ounces 
per week. 
(6) The Environmental Protection Agency rec-
ommends that women who are pregnant or who may 
become pregnant, nursing mothers, and young chil-
dren limit fish consumption to 6 meals per week of 
cooked fish or an 8-ounce meal per week for 
uncooked fish for adults and 2 meals per week of 
cooked fish or a 3-ounce meal per week of uncooked 
fish for young children.