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WASHINGTON -- Pregnant women should be told to either restrict consumption of canned albacore tuna or not eat it at all because of mercury contamination, the Food and Drug Administration's science advisory committee said Thursday.
The 20-member panel agreed to recommend that FDA staff should redraft a proposed mercury advisory to include three lists targeted at pregnant women, women who may become pregnant, nursing mothers and children.
One list would include fish that should not be eaten at all because of high mercury content, such as shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish, which is sometimes sold as "golden snapper" or "white snapper."
The second would be a "positive" list of fish low in mercury that consumers should be encouraged to eat, up to 12 ounces a week. This list would include canned "light" tuna, which tends to be three times lower in mercury than the more expensive canned albacore because it comes from a different species of tuna.
The third was described by committee members as a "go-slow" list of fish that should be eaten sparingly -- probably no more than 6 to 8 ounces a week -- because they have moderate amounts of mercury that could add up to a health problem if consumed more than once or twice a week.
Where albacore ranks
Marion Aller, the panel member who proposed the lists, said she is not sure yet whether albacore will fall into the do-not-eat list or the go-slow list. Other members asked Aller, the food-safety director for the state of Florida, to fine-tune her proposal and put it in writing.
Studies show that even very small amounts of mercury can interfere with brain development in the fetus and young children, lowering intelligence and causing learning, attention and memory problems.
People are primarily exposed to mercury by eating fish. Government tests show that 8 percent of women of childbearing age have blood mercury levels that exceed the government safety standard. One percent of women who are in their 20s have mercury blood levels nearly three times higher than the safety standard.
"I think there is a general and increasing belief that there is a public health problem here that needs to be resolved, and the consequences of that could be dramatic," said committee chairman Sanford Miller, a professor at Virginia Polytechnic and State University.
The panel's recommendations are only advisory, but they are usually followed by the agency.