Environmental Working Group (EWG), a nonprofit environmental research organization, is persuading the federal government to be specific about the types of fish that pregnant women should eat. The call was triggered by the concerns about potential exposure to mercury that may hurt the development of unborn babies.
The US Food and Drug Administration has drafted recommendations in 2014, advising women who are pregnant, planning to become pregnant or nursing a baby to consume eight to 12 ounces of low-mercury fish per week. It cited salmon, tuna (light canned), shrimp, tilapia, pollock, cod and catfish as types of fish with lower mercury. The draft has also advised women to refrain from eating tilefish, king mackerel, swordfish and shark.
But a new study conducted by EWG found that the government guidelines on what types of fish pregnant women should eat are not specific enough. CNN reported that the organization is concerned that the vague guidelines may prompt pregnant women to eat more of the wrong fish, such as other forms of tuna.
EWG conducted the study by examining hair samples of pregnant women from different states who admitted that they ate much or slightly more than what was recommended within a two-month period. They discovered that 29 percent of the women possess mercury in their bodies higher than the safe level.
Study results also showed that women who frequently eat fish have mercury levels that are 11 times higher than women who seldom eat seafood. It was also revealed that despite eating more fish, almost 60 percent of them did not get the amount of omega-3s needed during pregnancy.
Sonya Lunder, study author and senior analyst at EWG, said that there is really a need for the government to update its recommendations. "We want to encourage seafood consumption, but as women begin to eat more seafood, they have to keep that mercury information in front of them and in their mind so they don't go in the wrong direction and suffer from the risks rather than the benefits," she stated.
According to the World Health Organization, mercury exposure during pregnancy can adversely affect an unborn baby's growing brain and nervous system. This could result in lifelong deficits in cognitive thinking, memory, attention, language, and fine motor and visual spatial skills.
