Mercury toxicity was (eating for exercise. ive become frustrated. Please help).

[Guest guest]

Oh boy...this article is raising all kinds of red flags because of the

groups involved, including the FDA. I will do a little more research

before I comment on this consortium of environmental groups, the FDA and

their " science " behind the recommendations (including the okay for farmed

fish).

Bianca

On Mon, 11 Mar 2002 22:57:25 +0100 son

<hjacobson@...> writes:

I guess the article is no longer available through the NYtimes except as

a paid archive article. It

is posted in another form on someone's personal website. Here is my copy

from the page I saved on my

PC.

May 9, 2001

F.D.A. Cautions Against Eating Certain Fish

During Pregnancy

By MARION BURROS

IN January, for the first time, the Food and

Drug Administration issued a health alert

warning pregnant women to avoid four

species of fish — swordfish, king mackerel,

shark and tilefish — because of mercury

contamination. At the same time, the agency

urged them to continue eating up to 12

ounces of other fish a week.

The agency's advice is at odds with recommendations issued

last summer by the

National Academy of Sciences. That report called the

standards that the F.D.A.

used for its health alert seriously outdated and offered

guidance on how to

modernize them — guidance that might have resulted in a

much longer list of fish to

avoid. The Food and Drug Administration's warning sets

exposure levels at four

times what the academy considers risky. Two environmental

groups have just added

some other species to their lists of fish that pregnant

women should avoid.

It is not known if any children in the United States have

neurological defects or

delays in mental development because of mercury

contamination from their mothers'

bloodstreams. But the academy's report estimated that the

contamination increases

the chances that more than 60,000 babies born each year

could have neurological

problems. It also said that the Environmental Protection

Agency was correct in

setting standards four times as strict as the F.D.A.'s.

Some studies in other

countries

have found subtle effects in children whose mothers ate

fish with high levels of

mercury, such as a reduction of 7 to 8 points, on a

100-point scale, on intelligence

tests.

The Food and Drug Administration says it has made the

proper recommendation.

" We feel we've evaluated the science in an appropriate way

and our advisory is right

on target, " said Dr. Bolger, a toxicologist and the

chief of risk assessment

at

the agency's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

" We identified the four

species of greatest concern. "

Beyond that, Dr. Bolger said the agency held three focus

groups before releasing the

advisory and found that it was difficult to communicate to

people the concept that

there are safe fish, unsafe fish and some fish that should

be eaten infrequently. When

given such detailed information, members of the focus

groups said they would stop

eating fish altogether.

The agency said fish is an important source of nutrients,

and that eliminating it

entirely would be riskier than consuming some mercury.

Among the nutrients are

fatty acids that foster brain development.

Mercury is naturally present in the environment, and the

mercury in emissions from

coal-burning power plants has caused widespread pollution.

Still, the levels of

mercury in the air are minute. It isn't until it ends up as

sediment at the bottom of

lakes, rivers and oceans, where it is consumed by fish,

that it causes a problem, said

Dr. Philip Landrigan, a pediatrician who directs the

division of environmental

medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The larger

and older the fish, the

higher the concentration of mercury in its flesh. In water,

mercury converts to methyl

mercury.

Last month, two environmental groups issued a report after

analyzing fish

contamination records from government sources. The two, the

Environmental

Working Group and the United States Public Interest

Research Group Education

Fund, also called the Food and Drug Administration's

standards outdated and too

low. They said the agency's advice encourages consumption

of seafood with

dangerous levels of mercury.

The report, " Brain Food: What Women Should Know About

Mercury in Fish, "

went a step further than the National Academy of Sciences,

naming nine additional

species that pregnant women, or women planning to become

pregnant, should

avoid: tuna (in the form of steaks), sea bass, oysters from

the Gulf of Mexico,

marlin, halibut, pike, walleye, white croaker and

largemouth bass. The report said

that such women should not eat more than one meal a month

of canned tuna,

mahi-mahi, blue mussels, Eastern oysters, cod, pollock,

Great Lakes salmon, blue

crab from the Gulf of Mexico, wild channel catfish and lake

whitefish.

But the " Brain Food " study said it is a good idea to eat

fish and fish products, as

long as they contain only low levels of methyl mercury.

Specifically, it listed farmed

trout, farmed catfish, fish sticks (which are usually made

from fish with low mercury)

summer flounder, wild Pacific salmon, croaker, mid-Atlantic

blue crab and

haddock. Shrimp is on the list, too, though the report says

that there are serious

environmental concerns related to shrimp fishing and

farming practices.

Dr. A. Goyer, chairman of the committee that wrote

the National Academy

report, said: " The F.D.A. should be providing people with

the best available

information and let them be the judge. The F.D.A. has

stopped short of what it

should have done. I had thought the F.D.A. would pay more

attention to our

report. "

The academy based its call for stricter standards on

several studies done in the late

1990's in the Faroe Islands, New Zealand and the

Seychelles. The studies from the

Faroes and New Zealand showed neurotoxic effects, such as

delays in mental

development, from chronic exposure to fish and marine

animals with high levels of

methyl mercury, particularly shark and whale meat. (Whale

has levels of methyl

mercury somewhere between those in tuna and shark.) Those

studies, along with

various studies of animals and two of humans accidentally

exposed to high mercury

levels, convinced the committee that stricter standards

were necessary. The

Seychelles study did not show any effects, but Dr. Goyer

said the reason for that is

not clear.

The Food and Drug Administration should tighten its

standards, Dr. Landrigan said.

" With two highly credible positive studies in hand and an

exhaustive review of those

studies undertaken by the National Academy of Sciences,

there is no need to wait, "

he said. " We can always relax the advisory if we get

reassuring information later, but

we can't replenish brain cells. "

The " Brain Food " report took factors like body weight into

account in

recommending limits on how much fish a pregnant woman

should eat. The Food and

Drug Administration standards are based on a single

formula, geared to a

154-pound man; those standards have not changed since the

1970's.

The F.D.A. warnings also assume that women have no mercury

in their blood when

they become pregnant. But in March, the Centers for Disease

Control and

Prevention released new data showing that 10 percent of

American women 16 to

49 — roughly seven million — already have mercury levels

that are " within

one-tenth of potentially hazardous levels, indicating a

narrow margin of safety " for

damage to fetuses.

" The short-term strategy is to eat fish with low mercury

levels and to avoid or

moderate intake of fish with high mercury levels, " said Dr.

Sink, an

epidemiologist and the associate director for science at

the national center for

environmental health of the Centers for Disease Control.

Even if the lists provided in the " Brain Food " report are

more complicated than the

one provided by the Food and Drug Administration, Dr.

Goyer, of the National

Academy of Sciences, said that his committee correctly

assessed the risks.

" During their reproductive years, particularly during

pregnancy, women should not

avoid fish as a source of nutrition, " he said, " but should

consume it in an informed

manner by selecting species which are known to have very

little mercury. "

>

> According to NT:

>

> " You needn't be concerned about mercury levels in deep sea fish, such

as

> salmon, tuna, and swordfish...small amounts of mercury occur naturally

in

> these fish, and they contain substances that bind with mercury to take

it

> out of the body. "

>

> It would seem that that either the author of New York Times article is

> wrong or Sally is wrong. Could you post the link to the article your

are

> referencing? Thanks.

>

> Bianca