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Massive Ford Mercury Recall
Engineers Discover Traces of Tuna
By
Li Rapkin
The Ford
Motor Company announced today that it would recall all 2000
and 2001 Mercuries after a quality-control engineer discovered
that the vehicles were contaminated with an unsafe level of
tuna fish. Government safety and environmental regulations
limit contamination by tuna and other bony fish to a level
of no more than four parts per billion (ppb). Several different
models were found to contain over 160 ppb of the popular game
fish.
 A
spokesman for Ford could offer no explanation for the presence
of such high levels of tuna, but an internal investigation
is already underway.
“We’ve
been looking for similar problems in all other Ford products,
and contacting industry associations to see if they’ve also
encountered this kind of problem.”
So far,
only one similar case has been uncovered. In November of 1999,
Yoshio Kobayashi, a Vice President for Toyota operations in
Juarez, Mexico, accidentally left a sushi salmon roll in a
2000 Corolla during a visit to the factory floor. Fortunately,
an alert assembly-line worker was able to correct the problem
before the vehicle was shipped to a dealer. Toyota has not
reported any further fish-related problems with its vehicles,
either in North America or overseas.
Consumer
reaction to the tuna contamination has been fast and furious.
Ford’s public relations department has been working overtime
trying to reassure anxious consumers.
“I’ve
always driven Ford products,” says Susan Kowalski, a suburban
mother of three from Oak Park, Michigan who drives a brand-new
2001 Explorer. “I even voted for President Ford. But first,
there was the tire problem and now this.” Her neighbor and
fellow Explorer enthusiast Steven Davis concurs. “I have to
ask ‘what next?’ It’s not like I don’t want to buy American,
but this is ridiculous.”
Ford’s
Director of Public Relations was not available for comment,
but one of his assistants, after listening to consumer complaints,
commented that the public should be aware that there is no
proven, direct link between tuna or any other ocean-going
food fish and tire failure in Ford products.
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