Charlie Tuna: Unsafe At Any Speed

Remember when fish was the healthy choice? Today, the pluses of seafood – being low in saturated fat and high in omega-3 oils – are offset by creepy mounting knowledge about how much pollution has become a part of most fish flesh. And, just when you may have been getting a handle on which fish are safe to eat, the seascape has once again shifted.

Updated federal guidelines released in March lowered the amount of albacore that pregnant women, nursing mothers and young children should consume in a week to one six-ounce serving. Now two groups have come out with their own set of more stringent rules about eating fish.

According to fish-eating guidelines released last week by Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Society of Reproductive Health Professionals, children, and women who are either pregnant or considering getting pregnant should further restrict their fish intake, eating salmon, sardines, herring or bluefish only once or twice a month. The groups are raising concerns about these fish because they have high levels of PCBs, a class of chemicals that can cause serious health problems. The new, stricter guidelines also recommend that children under 12 altogether avoid several types of fish, including albacore tuna, which is now one of the biggest sources of Americans' exposure to mercury.

It's easy to roll your eyes – or panic – at the idea of more rules being imposed on what we should or should not eat. We already have E. coli and mad cow disease to think about, not to mention that whole perplexing business about carbs. But even the most determinedly relaxed eaters may want to think about how much fish they eat – especially if they are women considering having kids.

PCBs, which can cross the placenta and enter the fetal blood stream, can cause cancer, nervous system damage and disruption to brain development. These chemicals are plentiful in farmed salmon, the kind you now find in most restaurants or stores. According to a 2003 study done by the Environmental Working Group, a watchdog organization made up of independent scientists, farmed salmon purchased at grocery stores in Washington DC, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, had 16 times the PCBs found in wild salmon.

Mercury is similarly toxic to developing bodies. In high doses, the chemical can cause mental retardation and even death; in smaller doses, children's exposure – whether while in the womb, or directly from eating – can result in irreversible problems with memory, motor skills and learning capacity.

The Environmental Protection Agency, which issued the government's fish guidelines in conjunction with the Food and Drug Administration, estimates that millions of women have been exposed to mercury above recommended levels. And, according to a 2000 National Research Council study that was commissioned by Congress, some 60,000 children born in the U.S. each year may have neurological problems as a result of mercury exposure.

The good news is that, after eating less fish, the amount of mercury in blood should eventually fall to safe levels. (Some PCBs, on the other hand, remain in the body permanently.) The key, according to mercury experts, is eating fish of any kind only twice a week and completely avoiding swordfish, tilefish, king mackerel and shark, which both the feds and doctors' groups agree have so much mercury they should never be eaten.

Mercury and Coal

The bad news on the fish front, unfortunately, has the potential to outweigh the careful warnings of well-intentioned doctors and government scientists. Even as the Environmental Protection Agency and others caution about the dangers of polluted fish, the White House is working to undermine restrictions on coal-burning power plants, which are responsible for the premature deaths of 23,600 Americans each year, according to a June report commissioned by the environmental coalition, Clear the Air.