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At EWG, our team of scientists, engineers, policy experts, lawyers and computer programmers pores over government data, legal documents, scientific studies and our own laboratory tests to expose threats to your health and the environment, and to find solutions. Our research brings to light unsettling facts that you have a right to know.
Focus Pocus: Table 2: The FDA withholds information from pregnant women on mercury-contaminated fish, citing "focus groups" as justification
Table 2
Only 7 individual remarks in all 267 pages of final focus group transcripts support FDA's claims.
 Focus group participant |
Context of remark or type of person who made the remark |
What the participant said |
Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monica | Pregnant woman | "...if you can eat enough of the low to make it medium or high. I probably won't eat any type of seafood for the rest of my pregnancy...and I will be an advocate out there telling all pregnant women, stay away from fish." | 2 (pg 40) |
| Name not given | Pregnant woman | "Right. That's why I said: I just wouldn't eat any fish at all, period. You never know how much of the low that you eat could be high." | 2 (pp 47-8) |
| Shawna | Pregnant woman | "I'm going to stay away from fish." | 2 (pg 42) |
| Shawna | Pregnant woman | "I would respond by not buying any more fish sticks and substituting fish sticks for something else on the menu." | 2 (pg 49) |
| Trevor | Father with 3 kids ages 5, 12, and 13. Pretending to be a pregnant woman. | "I would not eat fish for the first trimester." | 1 (pg 24) |
| Name not given | Pretending to be a pregnant woman. | "I might find other ways to get the nutrients, without even risking the fish." | 1 (pg 29) |
| Name not given | Pretending to be a pregnant woman. | "I would simply say, okay, avoid fish. I wouldn't eat it at all if I were pregnant." | 3 (pg 56) |
Source: Environmental Working Group. Compiled from FDA focus group transcripts.
1 - Macro International, Inc. 2000i - Boston, Nov 8, 8pm.
2 - Macro International, Inc. 2000j - Calverton, MD, Nov 14, 6pm.
3 - Macro International, Inc. 2000k - Calverton, MD, Nov 14, 8pm.
