Southwest Florida News-Press, Byron Stout
Published July 20, 2002
Fish is healthy food for most adults ‹ rich in protein and an important source of the Omega 3 fatty acids recommended for a healthy heart.
But for young children and women of childbearing age, the message on fish is rich in confusion. The guidelines for avoiding potential birth abnormalities and developmental problems from eating too much fish with mercury are varied and contradictory.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency offer guidelines ‹ just not the same guidelines.
The FDA advises pregnant women, those who may become pregnant, nursing mothers and young children to never eat four species ‹ swordfish, sharks, king mackerel and tilefish.
For all other fish, the FDA advises eating a variety, and limiting consumption to an average of 12 ounces of cooked fish per week, with serving sizes ranging from 3 to 6 ounces.
The EPA does not have jurisdiction over commercial food products. But the EPA offers much more conservative advice for recreationally caught fish from all bodies of fresh water, even though experts acknowledge the only differences in fish that matter are their mercury levels, not their origins.
The EPA recommendation is to limit consumption to one meal of 6 ounces of cooked fish per week for women of childbearing age, and 2 ounces for young children ‹ one-half to one-sixth the amounts recommended by the FDA.
Florida and some other states further confuse the issue in four ways. Health advisories are issued based on:
* Eaters¹ personal characteristics including gender and age.
* Species of fish.
* Size of particular species.
* Water bodies from which the fish were taken.
Examples include not eating any bass caught in the Florida Everglades, or eating only limited amounts of spotted seatrout from Charlotte Harbor. The guidelines for adult men allow the consumption of four times as much trout as for children or women of childbearing age.
Most confusing is the advice to eat king mackerel with caution, or not at all, depending on the length of the particular fish.
Fort Myers obstetrician Dr. Richard Murray advises patients in pre-pregnancy counseling to avoid fish on the FDA list.
For some women, however, such information has been difficult to find, even with a lot of research.
"I definitely tried to become informed," said Naples resident Patty Gahan, who recently delivered a healthy baby girl.
Gahan, 30, has a bachelor of science in chemistry, but she said she didn¹t remember reading anything about mercury or other chemical elements in fish from handouts given to her by her own doctor¹s office. Nor could she remember reading warnings to never eat certain fish in her studies.
"What I remember was you can have those fish but you should limit your intake to once a week," Gahan said.
Murray said once his patients hear some fish are high in mercury, many take a very conservative approach.
"Once they hear that they say, ŒWell, I¹m not eating any fish at all.¹
"That¹s a very common reaction," Murray said.
According to calculations done by the Environmental Working Group, a consumer protection group based in Washington, D.C., not eating fish may be the safest course.
To determine which fish would be safe to eat for women in the risk categories, the group started with the safe blood level of mercury for pregnant women. Those blood levels were determined by a Congress-ordered review of scientific studies of children with nervous system deficiencies whose mothers were exposed to mercury in fish.
The calculations determined the safe level of mercury in fish is .04 parts per million, a level at which 99.9 percent of women eating recommended amounts would remain below the blood level of mercury at which no brain impairment was noted.
Of 81 species of saltwater fish in tests published by the state of Florida, only the vegetarian mullets had mercury levels that averaged in the 0.04 ppm range.
That level of mercury in fish is far more restrictive than the levels that trigger health advisories from the federal government or Florida, although it is similar to levels adopted by Minnesota and New Jersey health departments.
Florida guidelines for saltwater fish were last issued in 1997 and are under review.
Asked when the revisions could be expected, health department epidemiologist Dr. Joe Sekerke would not hazard a guess.
"I quit guessing about six months ago," Sekerke said in March.
New guidelines also are not likely to emerge anytime soon from the FDA, even though the federal agency will convene a scientific panel to discuss mercury issues beginning Tuesday in Washington. The purpose of the meeting is to examine only if its past advisories have been scientifically justifiable, according to spokeswoman Ruth Welch.
If the panel finds the FDA warnings are not based on sound science, the process will be begun anew.
