November 13, 2007

US medical industry criticises ad campaign promoting fish to mothers

The US medical industry is up in arms over an ad campaign by the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition that encouraged pregnant women to increase their fish intake.

The group, citing a study paid for by The National Fisheries Institute, the main trade association for the fishing industry, had earlier touted the health benefits of farmed salmon for pregnant women and their unborn babies in ad campaigns in various publications, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The medical industry said there is a well-known risk of mercury and other contaminants commonly found in certain seafood.

For years, the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency have advised women who are pregnant, might become pregnant or are breast-feeding to eat no more than 12 ounces weekly of any type of fish or shellfish that could be high in mercury, a potent neurotoxin.

Mercury contained in fish such as shark, swordfish and tuna could also be harmful to the developing nervous systems of fetuses and infants.

A group of medical and public health professionals last year publicly protested a series of ads in major publications, paid for by the farmed salmon industry.

The key study published in the Lancet and cited by the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition, was said to be flawed as the study's methodology and conclusions were challenged by experts with New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection and Maine's Department of Health and Human Services.

There was also discord within the ranks of the coalition.

Members of the group, such as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said they abide by the FDA and EPA guidelines and not that of the industry-funded study.