Pregnant women and those in their childbearing years should limit their tuna consumption, according to an advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This caution should stand, they suggest, until further studies of the mercury content in the fish are determined to be truly toxic or not. Americans consume tuna more than any other fish.
In 2001, the FDA also warned pregnant women and those of childbearing years against consuming shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish. The new advisory panel, established to assess the effectiveness of that warning, has also recommended research into the effects of mercury in fish consumed by children.
Along with the 2001 warning, the FDA had encouraged people to eat a "variety" of other fish; the new advisory panel is also suggesting "variety" be more clearly defined. The panel noted that fish are overall a healthy food, with essential fatty acids, and the key is to balance the benefits of consuming fish against the potential harm.
MSNBC July 25, 2002
To read the background behind the panel's recommendation please check out this recent article.
This recommendation is especially important because tuna is the most-consumed fish in the US. About 8 percent of U.S. women of childbearing age have enough mercury in their blood to be at risk. The National Academy of Sciences estimates that 60,000 newborns a year could be at risk of learning disabilities because of mercury their mothers absorbed during pregnancy.
It is a tragedy that our culture has virtually devastated one of the healthiest foods on the planet with mercury toxicity. We have polluted the environment with hundreds of millions of tons of mercury by burning coal for electricity. The mercury eventually finds it way into the waterways where it is bioaccumulated to very high levels in most fish. Generally the larger the fish, the more mercury it contains. In fact, some mercury levels have been unbelievably high. Tragedy is an understatement.
Some fish have less mercury then others, but nearly all fish are contaminated with mercury. I have done thousands of hair mineral analyses on patients and can confidently state this as truth. Patients who don't eat any fish are the only ones who have immeasurable levels of mercury in their hair. In my experience, anyone eating fish has mercury, and it is nearly always in direct proportion to the frequency of their fish consumption.
So here is my recommendation:
Avoid all fish, unless you are absolutely certain that it has been tested in a laboratory and shown not to contain detectable levels of mercury and other toxins.
Fish has mercury that will absolutely compromise your health.
We all need the omega-3 fats found in fish, but you should get them from a clean source. Most of the fish oil supplements go through a molecular distillation process to clean out the mercury, but you should definitely contact the manufacturer directly to confirm this.
Finally, I commend the Environmental Working Group for their fine work in evaluating the FDA transcripts and bringing this to public attention. They have done a great public service.
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