The dish on fish.
It’s been a winter of bad news for seafood lovers. A joint draft fish advisory from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. EPA added tuna — America’s second-most popular seafood after shrimp — to its list of mercury-containing fish that should be restricted in the diets of pregnant women and young children. A separate new study found unhealthy pollutants in far higher amounts in farmed salmon than in their wild kin. And, as reported in the February issue of Environmental Health Perspectives, Great Lakes’ sport-caught fish contain PCBs, DDT, and PBDEs, though the study did not show a link between their consumption and rising breast cancer rates.
Having a tough time keeping all these grim reports straight? Here’s an update on toxins to avoid, fish that contain them, and fish that are safer to eat.
Mercury
Fetuses, infants, and young children are at greatest risk of harm from mercury, which can damage developing brains and nervous systems. As the Harvard School of Public Health warned in a study published in the Journal of Pediatrics earlier this month, fetuses a... Read more
