Don?t throw out all those tuna fish cans just yet.
A recent report that nearly 60 percent of Maryland?s fish contain unsafe levels of mercury by Environmental Protection Agency standards ? more than 30 parts per billion of mercury ? has created concern about whether pregnant women or developing children should eat fish at all.
Doctors say the concern is overblown. Even pregnant women can eat fish ? as long as it is in moderation. In Maryland, there has been no major outbreak of mercury poisoning.
Mercy Medical Center emergency physician and medical toxicologist Fermin Barrueto Jr. said pregnant women and children can eat 1 to 2 ounces of high-level mercury a week.
Barrueto said fish contain methyl mercury, which can be filtered out of the body relatively quickly.
“Baltimore has thousands of children that are eating seafood as part of their diet and you find there is no outbreak” of mercury-related illnesses, he said.
“It is important ? very important ? to keep arsenic, lead and mercury levels very moderated,” Barrueto said, but he added that there is no uniform standard for everyone.
In cases of extreme exposure to mercury, such as an industrial spill, Barrueto said mercury can cause birth defects and abnormalities. However, he said links between mercury and some developmental delays are not definitive.
“If it was so cut and dry, then it wouldn?t be so controversial,” he said.
Dr. Steven Gilbert, director of the Institute of Neurotoxicology and Neurological Disorders in Seattle, agreed that “fish are a great source of food” but said it?s important that children eat even smaller portions of it than adults, since their bodies are smaller.
“It?s about your size and the dose,” Gilbert said.
Instances of mercury poisoning in the state are rare, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment.
Spokesman Richard McIntire said there are only a few cases of mercury poisoning a year, and they are usually caused by accidental spills or “legitimate ignorance,” such as letting children play with mercury thermometers.
Mercury facts
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said about 1 in 6 American women of reproductive age had levels of mercury high enough to damage a developing fetus. Studies have linked mercury to autism, developmental delays and lowered IQ.
