Mercury in fish remains concern for pregnant women

Jennifer Hendrickson hasn't been able to stomach the smell of fish, tuna or otherwise, for the 36 weeks she's been pregnant. So the Cape Girardeau resident and Capaha Bank executive has avoided fish altogether.

"Honestly, the smell of fish makes me really ill right now," she said last week. "Even if it was good for me, I wouldn't be eating it right now. The smell's a little too potent."

But she's listened to the warnings, read the books and even heard about a recent Consumer Reports article suggesting that some canned tuna contains mercury levels high enough that pregnant women should never eat it.

In fact, the report prompted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to call on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to issue a new warning that pregnant women should never eat canned tuna. A report in the Chicago Tribune says the FDA doesn't intend to.

High levels of mercury can cause serious health problems to the human nervous system. In extreme cases, according to Dr. Ann Uhls, an OB-GYN at Cape Care for Women, high levels of mercury can cause birth defects such as small head size, mental retardation, cerebral atrophy, seizures and blindness.

Still, Uhls doesn't give the Consumer Reports article much credence. Canned tuna in the United States is well below FDA guidelines, she said.

"I think Consumer Reports made a big hooey-booey out of nothing," she said. "It's a political thing. There's a lot of tree-hugging over at Consumer Reports. It's not real science. Let's put it that way."

Uhls does suggest to her pregnant patients that they eat less than 6 ounces of tuna a week or 12 ounces of cooked fish.

"If you want fish you can have it once it week," she said. "To not allow patients to have fish is going overboard."

Dr. Michael Jessup, an OB-GYN with Midwest Obstetrics & Gynecology in Cape Girardeau, though, says he does tell pregnant patients not to eat those types of fatty fish -- like tuna and catfish -- where a significant portion of the meat is fat that can absorb the mercury.

"But it seems like it's changing all the time, how much they can eat," he said. "What happens in six months when it changes again? I try not to overblow the issue, but I just tell them to avoid that altogether. We just don't know everything we need to know about it yet."

Jessup also points out a decades-old debate about links between mercury and autism, the brain disorder that begins in early childhood affecting communication, social interaction and creative or imaginative play.

"You read different theories all the time," Jessup said. "It may be overblown, too. But it's a concern. It's better to be safe than sorry."

For Hendrickson, though, whose first baby is due next month, she won't allow herself to worry too much.

"I think all parents worry that baby is going to have something wrong," she said. "But whatever happens happens. I just kind of feel like it's part of God's plan."

smoyers@semissourian.com

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