Salmon is low in environmental contaminants and can be safely eaten at least once per week.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is trying to loosen its advice on how much seafood pregnant women and young children can safely eat, which could increase their exposure to harmful mercury that can damage fetal and childhood neurological development. News of the proposal came in the final days of the Bush Administration and preceded the publication of a retired Environmental Protection Agency mercury expert’s study showing that mercury levels in women are dropping, perhaps because they are eating safer species of fish. That study appears in this month’s issue of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

THE DETAILS: In late December, the Washington Post obtained an FDA draft proposing that the benefits of eating fish outweigh the risks posed by the neurotoxin mercury. If approved by the White House, the change could serve as a last-minute gift to the seafood industry. However, if enacted, the decision could be overhauled by the Obama administration. “It’s a wholesale effort to ignore the contaminants in fish and emphasize the nutrients,” says Kathryn Mahaffey, PhD, a retired EPA mercury expert and current lecturer at George Washington University. “They have never been as vigorous as the EPA in concern over contaminants.”

FDA spokesman Michael Herndon says it would be a mistake for the public to assume the draft is the FDA’s official position, adding that the agency will seek public comment after government agencies discuss the proposed changes. Meanwhile, Mahaffey’s study suggests the advisories are helping women make better decisions about eating fish. After looking at blood mercury levels in women across the country, she and other researchers found that the levels of the toxin in their blood dropped between 1999 to 2004, despite the fact women were eating the same amount of fish. “The advisories are having an impact,” she says.