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“Protecting the health and informed consent rights of children since 1982.”
BLFisher Note: The CDC recommendation that pregnant women
get a flu shot,
which contains mercury as a preservative, is highly
questionable considering
the fact that exposing the developing fetus to mercury can
cause permanent
damage. Cumulative exposures through food, vaccines and
other environmental
sources could be very important, especially to biologically
vulnerable
babies
April 13,2001
WASHINGTON (The Boston Globe) - Recently issued government
guidelines are inadequate to protect fetuses and newborn babies from the
harmful effects of mercury in seafood, according to a report released Thursday
by a pair of advocacy groups.
The study by the Environmental Working Group and the U.S.
Public Interest Research Group concludes that as many as one in four pregnant
women could endanger the long-term development of their children if they follow
the dietary guidelines issued by the US Food and Drug Administration at the
start of this year. The groups also identify 13 fish that pregnant women should
not eat - three times the number currently identified by the government.
The report, which drew criticism from the government and
from food processors, was also critical of federal and state government
monitoring of mercury in fish.
The study cited Massachusetts as one of two states with
sufficient notifications in place regarding mercury levels in fish.
“If American women at this varied diet of FDA’s
recommended 12 ounces of fish per week, more than one-quarter of all
pregnancies every year, or about a million pregnancies, would be exposedb to
potentially harmful levels of methylmercury for over a month of the pregnancy,”
said Jane Houlihan, the Environmental Working Group’s research director. “And
20,000 of those children would be exposed to a high level of methylmercury
through the entire pregnancy.”
FDA representatives did not return phone calls Thursday.
In addition to the four species of fish that the agency already said that women
of child-bearing age should avoid, the study cited nine other types of fish and
seafood, including fresh tuna, sea and largemouth bass, and Gulf Coast oysters.
The study found a second group of fish that pregnant women
should not eatmore than once a month that included canned tuna, mahi mahi, and
eastern oysters.
The report also identified nine fish and seafood they
recommended, including farmed trout and catfish, shrimp, fish sticks, summer
flounder, wild pacific salmon, croaker, haddock and blue crab.
A food processors group disagreed with the report, arguing
that the government has greater credibility than the two advocacy
organizations.
“We believe that the FDA has made decisions based on very
strong science,”said Timothy Willard, spokesman for the National Food
Processors Association, which represents the food processing industry. “They
have greater expertise on health and safety issues and we find them a very
credible source of information.”
Fish is widely considered to be an excellent source of
nutrients, but concerns have long existed about levels of mercury
contamination.
The FDA in January issued guidelines on mercury in fish
for women who are pregnant or may become pregnant. At that time, the agency
said that those women, and young children, should avoid eating shark,
swordfish, king mackerel, or tilefish. Otherwise, the agency said, women can eat
up to 12 ounces of cooked fish weekly.
But the two advocacy groups say that the agency’s study
was flawed because it’s risk assumptions are for a 150-pound male with no prior
level of mercury exposure.
The study uses computer modeling to evaluate the risk for
a wide range of women. The two groups compiled data on mercury contamination of
fish from seven federal, state and other governmental sources, eventually
compiling a database of more than 50,000 records. They used those records to
determine which fish generally have the lowest mercury contamination and which
have the highest.
The report comes as the administration considers whether
to uphold a Clinton plan regulating mercury emissions from coal-burning power
plants, a potential source of the contamination.
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