To limit fish eating or not: FDA and EPA at odds

William Atkins
Saturday, 13 December 2008 20:09

Science - Health

For years the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has advised some groups of people to limit their amount of fish eaten because of mercury contamination. However, even though the FDA is considering this change the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is against it. Officials at both agencies have extremely different viewpoints.


According to the Friday, December 12, 2008 Washington Post article “FDA Draft Report Urges Consumption of Fish, Despite Mercury Contamination,” which first reported the controversy, the FDA is “… urging the government to amend its advisory that women and children should limit how much fish they eat, saying that the benefits of seafood outweigh the health risks and that most people should eat more fish, even if it contains mercury.”

The FDA has circulated a draft report within the U.S. government that contends the health benefits of eating fish outweigh the potential health problems from mercury.

However, the EPA has sent a memorandum to the Bush Administration at the White House calling the 270-page FDA study "scientifically flawed and inadequate" and an "oversimplification."

Currently, the U.S. government recommends, based on FDA recommendations, that pregnant women, women of childbearing years, nursing mothers, and infants and children limit the amount of fish they eat each week to no more than twelve ounces.

From 2004, the EPA article “What You Need to Know about Mercury in Fish and Shellfish" talks about EPA and FDA advice for "Women Who Might Become Pregnant, Women Who are Pregnant, Nursing Mothers, Young Children.”

This limit is recommended because it is thought that mercury in fish could harm such groups of people

The recommendation specifically states that swordfish, shark, tilefish, and king mackerel are especially high in mercury levels. In addition, only six ounces of white albacore tuna should be eaten each week as opposed to chunk light tuna because of its generally higher mercury levels.

For a FDA table of various types of fish and mercury levels, please go to “Mercury Levels in Commercial Fish and Shellfish.”

Page two contains information on mercury contamination in fish.