New mercury warning for pregnant women, 1 in 7 newborns may be affected!
February 7, 2004



Pregnant women get new mercury warning
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1 in 7 newborns may be affected

By Michael Hawthorne
Tribune staff reporter

February 7, 2004

More than 15 percent of children born in the United States could be at risk
for brain damage and learning difficulties due to mercury exposure in the
womb, according to a new government analysis that identifies certain types
of fish as the culprits.

Several recent studies led the Environmental Protection Agency to conclude
that up to 630,000 of the 4 million babies born annually in the U.S. could
have mercury blood levels at or above the agency's safety limit, almost
double the EPA's previous estimate.

The more-alarming analysis comes amid a flurry of new concern about mercury.
New research, released Friday, found that mercury, a highly toxic metal, can
irreversibly damage parts of the brain before birth. Also, the federal
government is considering new regulations and advisories about mercury.

Most of the mercury in newborns comes from fish eaten by their mothers. The
Food and Drug Administration is crafting new guidelines that advise mothers
and women of childbearing age to avoid or limit eating certain types of fish
with higher levels of the toxin, including tuna.

The EPA analysis also could influence a Bush administration proposal that
would allow the operators of coal-fired power plants, the biggest man-made
source of mercury, to buy their way out of limits on the pollutant.

EPA scientists based their new estimate on adult blood samples collected by
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and on recent studies that
found the average level of mercury in umbilical-cord blood is 1.7 times
higher than the level in the mother's blood.

Researchers previously assumed that mercury levels in maternal and
umbilical-cord blood were the same.

About 8 percent of women of childbearing age had mercury blood levels
exceeding the EPA's safety limit of 5.8 parts per billion. But a newborn
could exceed the limit if the level of mercury in the mother's blood was
just 3.5 parts per billion, according to a presentation by Kathryn Mahaffey,
a top scientist in the EPA's Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic
Substances.

In 2000, nearly 16 percent of American women had mercury blood levels of 3.5
parts per billion or higher, according to Mahaffey's Jan. 26 presentation at
a scientific forum in San Diego. The EPA posted a summary on its Web site
this week.

Fish is big source

Relying on data provided by the CDC, Mahaffey reported that women who had
eaten fish at least nine times in a month had seven times as much mercury in
their blood as women who had not eaten fish during the previous month.

"This implies we need to do more to reduce the amount of mercury in the
environment and do a better job of advising women about the types of fish
they should be eating," said Alan Stern, chief of the Bureau for Risk
Analysis at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

Stern recently published a summary of studies of mercury levels in
umbilical-cord blood, which Mahaffey used to develop the EPA's new estimate
of newborns at risk. Both scientists said the research is still evolving and
the estimates could change, but the conclusions are based on a methodology
recommended by the National Research Council, an arm of the National Academy
of Sciences.

Mercury is a naturally occurring substance that is released into the air by
volcanoes, forest fires, incinerators and factories and power plants that
burn coal. A small amount falls into lakes, streams and oceans through rain
and becomes methylmercury, a potent form of the toxin that becomes more
concentrated as it moves up the food chain.

It takes only a teaspoon of mercury to contaminate a 20-acre lake. Infants
and children are particularly vulnerable to methylmercury because their
nervous systems are still developing.

Irreversible brain damage

If certain types of fish are a large part of a mother's diet, mercury passed
to her baby in the womb can irreversibly damage parts of the brain,
according to a study published Friday in the Journal of Pediatrics. High
mercury exposures in the womb and in a child's early years also can damage
the nervous system's control of the heart, the researchers found, reducing
the amount of oxygen provided to the rest of the body.

"The current focus on protecting women against this neurotoxin should be
expanded to cover children and adolescents as well," the study's chief
author, Phillipe Grandjean of the Harvard School of Public Health, said in a
statement.

Nutrition experts recommend fish as a key source of protein and
heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. But 44 states, including Illinois, advise
children and women of childbearing age to limit eating of certain types of
freshwater fish found to have high levels of mercury. The list in Illinois
includes bass, walleye, flathead catfish, sauger, saugeye, muskellunge and
northern pike.

In December, the FDA released a draft nationwide advisory for pregnant
women, nursing mothers and women of childbearing age to limit their intake
of tuna due to mercury contamination. Eating more than 12 ounces of canned
albacore tuna a week--an amount equal to two cans of the popular fish--is
enough to exceed the EPA's safety limit.

Canned albacore, also known as white tuna, has nearly three times as much
mercury as canned light tuna, according to the FDA. The agency had
previously warned pregnant women against eating four other types of fish
that contain high levels of the toxin: shark, swordfish, king mackerel and
tilefish.

Industry figures show women between 18 and 54 make about 85 percent of the
tuna purchases at supermarkets.

Mahaffey and others are urging mothers and women of childbearing age to
choose fish that have low levels of mercury. Mackerel, sockeye salmon and
herring generally have low levels of mercury but high levels of the
beneficial omega-3 fatty acids.

Consumers have been bombarded lately with sometimes-conflicting advice about
seafood. In addition to the tuna advisory, a recent study showed farm-raised
salmon contain significantly higher concentrations of PCBs, dioxins and
other cancer-causing pollutants than salmon caught in the wild.

Removing skin and fat can reduce exposure to PCBs in fish. But the technique
doesn't work for mercury, which is bound to the meat.

The National Fisheries Institute, an industry group that advises consumers
on its Web site to "eat fish to keep your mind sharp," questioned the EPA
analysis. "We still believe the health benefits of eating fish outweigh any
risks," said Linda Candler, a spokeswoman.

Environmental and public health groups said the research should prompt
federal officials to take more aggressive steps to advise women and children
which fish are safe to eat.

"We need to deal with this problem now," said Jane Houlihan, vice president
of the Environmental Working Group, a non-profit research and advocacy
organization. "Women need to know which fish they can eat that will give
them essential nutrients without the harmful mercury."

The largest sources of man-made mercury, coal-fired power plants, release
about 48 tons of the toxin into the air each year. Illinois ranks seventh in
the nation in mercury emissions.

Under a Bush administration proposal, utilities would have until 2018 to
reduce mercury emissions by 70 percent. Dirty plants could buy credits from
clean ones to avoid or delay installing mercury controls, similar to a
system already in place that has reduced emissions of sulfur dioxide, the
main ingredient in acid rain.

The EPA had been on track to enforce more-stringent regulations that would
have required a faster, deeper cut in mercury emissions. Utilities argued
they didn't have technology to meet the agency's target.

Environmental groups have called the administration's proposal an
election-year gift to some of Bush's top campaign contributors. Last week,
the EPA's advisory committee on children's health said the proposal doesn't
go far enough to attack the "significant health threat of mercury to our
children, and to healthy child development."

Among other things, the committee said it is concerned that allowing
utilities to buy or trade their way out of mercury controls could end up
creating "hot spots" of the toxin around the country.


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