Of Moms And Mercury - health hazards of mercury levels among women of childbearing age - Brief Article

National Wildlife, June-July, 2001

As many as one in every ten women of childbearing age in the United States has potentially troublesome levels of mercury in her blood, a new government study concludes. Mercury is a heavy metal that can cause kidney damage and neurological problems in adults and, in even minute concentrations, developmental impairments in fetuses and children.

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and several other federal agencies tested mercury levels in children ages 1 to 5 and women ages 16 to 49 across the country. Although the levels were below those considered hazardous, ten percent of the women tested had mercury concentrations that exceed what the Environmental Protection Agency considers safe.

These women, like all people, get mercury mostly by eating fish. The fish ingest the heavy metal in oceans, lakes and streams, where it has been carried by rain from its chief source: air pollution from power plants and waste incinerators.

"The results support continuing efforts to reduce mercury emissions into the environment," says Susan Schober, an epidemiologist with the CDC. Conservationists are urging the federal government to set strict limits on mercury emissions from power plants.

In the meantime, officials urge women who are pregnant or might become pregnant to avoid eating fish with high levels of mercury: king mackerel, shark, swordfish and tilefish, along with certain locally available freshwater species. More information is available on the Web at www.mercurypolicy.org and www.nwf.org/cleantherain.>

COPYRIGHT 2001 National Wildlife Federation

COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group