EPA advisors want agency to add more fish species to "do not eat list" for kids and pregnant women
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Inside EPA] By David Reynolds - December 22, 2014 -
EPA's children's health advisors are urging the agency to strengthen its draft fish consumption advice for pregnant women and children by adding several species to a "do not eat" list and offering more specific advice on health risks from consuming other species, backing advocates' claims that the draft fails to adequately limit mercury exposures.
In a recent draft letter to the agency, EPA's Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee (CHPAC) recommends that EPA add two species of fish to its list of fish to avoid eating. CHPAC also fears that by failing to advise pregnant women to limit intake of several other fish species, the advice may lead women to consume unsafe levels of mercury.
"CHPAC is concerned that consumers will assume that other fish species high in mercury that are not specifically named in the advisory are safe for pregnant women to eat 2-3 times per week," according to the draft letter outlining recommendations the panel finalized during a meeting earlier this month in Washington, DC.
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