FDA Looks Into Pregnant Women, Fish July 24, 2002
BELTSVILLE, Md. (AP) -- Critics charge the Food and Drug Administration needs to tell pregnant women just how many types of fish are contaminated with enough mercury to hurt their unborn baby's developing brain.
The FDA has four species on its don't-eat-while-pregnant list - shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish - but says a few servings a week of most other fish is healthy.
But amid fierce criticism from some consumer advocates that tuna and other species should be avoided, the FDA's independent scientific advisers have opened a three-day inquiry to judge if the agency erred - and if American women need stronger warnings.
"It was our genuine belief that if women consciously followed this advice ... these women would be protecting their unborn children," FDA food safety chief Joseph Levitt told the advisory panel Tuesday.
"It is an emotionally charged issue," Levitt acknowledged. "We are truly open and want your best advice, whether you agree with us or not."
The panel will issue a decision on Thursday.
Fish is very nutritious; certain types contain high levels of heart-healthy fats, plus fats important for fetal brain development. But different types also harbor different amounts of toxic mercury. Typically, the largest fish contain the most mercury.
Based on loose figures about U.S. fish consumption, some 60,000 newborns a year might be at risk of neurologic damage because of mercury their mothers absorbed during pregnancy, the National Academy of Sciences says.
About 8 percent of U.S. women of childbearing age have enough mercury in their blood, based on the academy's levels, to be at risk, says the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those who eat three or more servings of fish a week had the highest levels.
Based on such evidence, the FDA last year advised that pregnant women and those wishing to become pregnant avoid the four species that contain the highest levels - but eat up to 12 ounces a week of any other cooked fish.
Following that advice should ensure women don't absorb enough mercury from fish to risk their infants suffering learning disabilities, the FDA decided, a point agency scientists will argue before the advisory panel Thursday.
But critics attacked the FDA for not including tuna steaks, which contain somewhat less mercury than swordfish. Some also urge pregnant women to curtail canned tuna consumption, although canned tuna is made from small tuna fish that contain far less mercury. Some even advise the women to avoid other species, such as sea bass and marlin.
One advocacy organization, the Environmental Working Group, also charges that FDA was prepared to limit tuna consumption but bowed to pressure from the seafood industry and backed off, a charge FDA denies.
The result is mass confusion - women don't know what to believe, consumer advocate Caroline Smith DeWaal of the Center for Science in the Public Interest told the FDA advisory panel.
Worse, she said, the FDA doesn't prevent the most heavily contaminated fish from being sold. Nor does it require warning labels on the fish pregnant women aren't supposed to eat, making it difficult for consumers to know the advice.
"It truly is a toothless tiger," she said.
But just how much mercury exposure is too much actually is controversial, scientists told the advisory panel Tuesday. Most of the data comes from two conflicting studies among populations that eat more mercury-laced seafood than most of the world:
-Babies born in the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic, where people eat lots of highly contaminated whale meat, have a higher risk of certain subtle defects in memory and learning.
-Babies in the Indian Ocean's Seychelles Islands seem to suffer little if any effect. Women there eat mostly the same fish Americans do, but so much that their bodies contain 10 to 20 times more mercury than Americans'.
The FDA deems fish safe if they contain less than 1 part per million of methylmercury; the four types on its do-not-eat list exceed that level. Critics charge large tuna steaks can contain more, too, and certain other species contain only slightly less.
One of FDA's own advisers said Tuesday that he bought 11 cans of tuna fish at his grocery store, and independent testing showed one of them contained 1.2 ppm of mercury.
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
