Good News from Mercury Study - May 2003

The latest results from an ongoing study of the effects of mercury in fish on the developing nervous system show no ill effects, according to the May 17 issue of The Lancet. The University of Rochester study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and others, followed 779 mother-infant pairs from pregnancy to 9 years of age in the Seychelles Islands, a population that eats 10-20 times more fish than Americans average. “On balance, the existing evidence suggests that methylmercury exposure from fish consumption during pregnancy, of the level seen in most parts of the world, does not have measurable cognitive or behavior problems in later childhood,” said Dr. Constantine Lyketsos, in the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neuropsychiatry at John Hopkins Hospital, in Baltimore. “For now, there is no reason for pregnant women to reduce fish consumption below current levels, which are probably safe.”