Los Angeles Times, Marla Cone
Published February 7, 2004
A decades-long study of Nordic children reveals the damaging effects of prenatal exposure to mercury from tainted seafood.
EXCERPT
Because of seafood's many nutritional benefits, medical experts say the best protection for women of childbearing age is to avoid fish with high contaminant levels, not to avoid all fish.
The highest mercury concentrations are in large predatory species, particularly swordfish, king mackerel, shark, tilefish and opah. Medium to high levels are found in fresh and canned albacore tuna, grouper, red snapper and orange roughy. Among the safest fish in terms of mercury are salmon, shrimp, crab, light canned tuna, sea bass, herring, catfish and tilapia.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration advises women of childbearing age and children to stop eating swordfish, king mackerel, shark and tilefish. But it says that eating up to 12 ounces a week of a variety of other fish is safe. A 6-ounce serving is equivalent to a can of tuna.
But some health officials and environmental groups say the advisory does not sufficiently protect babies and children, so they want it extended to other fish with medium to high mercury levels.
Using an FDA formula, the Environmental Working Group said women should eat no more than 6 ounces per week of 13 other fish: fresh tuna, canned albacore tuna, grouper, red snapper, lobster, marlin, opah, orange roughy, saltwater bass, freshwater and seawater trout, bluefish and croaker.
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