Is CONCERN over mercury in fish causing you to cut back on consuming seafood? If so, you could be missing out on the healthy effects of fish on everything from your cardiovascular system to your brain.

  In 2004, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) jointly issued a warning about levels of mercury- in the form of a compound, methyl mercury—in certain fish species. Like a similar advisory in 2001, the advice to avoid high-mercury species and limit total fish in take was chiefly aimed at women of child-bearing age. But experts worry that the government warnings scared Americans of all genders and ages away from seafood.

  “If you are not pregnant and are not going to become pregnant, you shouldn’t even be thinking about mercury in fish,” says Josh Cohen, PhD, of the research staff at the Tufts New England Medical Center in the institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies. Cohen, previously affiliated with the Harvard School of Public Health, is the lead author of the three-year study by that school’s Center for Risk Analysis published recently in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, analyzing the pros and cons of fish consumption.

  Government warnings about mercury in fish may do more harm than good to public health, the study concludes. “Fish are an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids, which may protect against coronary heart disease and stroke, and are thought to aid in the neurological development of unborn babies,” Cohen says. “If that information gets lost in how the public perceives this issue, then people may inappropriately curtail fish consumption and increase their risk for adverse health outcomes.”

  In fact, that’s exactly what another new study, from the University of Maryland’s Center for Food, Nutrition and Agriculture Policy (CFNAP), says has happened. The center commissioned a poll of 1,040 adults, which found 31% of the public concerned

about mercury levels in fish. While 89% of US adults say they eat fish occasionally, only 36% of adults reported eating seafood at least once a week. The US Tuna Foundation, which helped fund a new center’s Web site,www.realmercuryfacts.org, also says tuna consumption has dropped 10% since 2004.

   The CFNAP poll found widespread confusion over warnings about mercury in fish. When asked to whom the advisory applies, 45% said the elderly, 35% said pre-teens and teenagers, 29% thought it also applies to me and 30% said all Americans should avoid high mercury species (which less than 5% could correctly identify).

   To try to get Americans back in the swim of things, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) sponsored a three-day "Seafood and Health" conference in early December. Bill Hogarth, Phd, director of NOAA's Fisheries Service, told participants, "The scientific evidence explored today is clear and solid: eating more fish and shellfish will lead to healthier, smarter and longer-lived US population. While there are risks associated with everything we consume, the health benefits gained from omega-3 fatty acids in fish and shellfish far outweigh the risks from contaminants for the vast majority of the population."

Omega-3's Make a Splash

It was a similar conference, held in Seattle 20 years ago, that first cast the spotlight on the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, found in fatty, cold-water fish such as salmon, tuna, mackerel, herring and lake trout. In the 1970s, Scandinavian researchers had found evidence of seafood's cardiovascular benefits among Greenland's Inuit population. But research on omega-3s didn't really take off until that "Seafood & Health' 885" symposium.

  Since Then, one study after another has shown the benefits of consuming seafood rich in omega-3s. A recent Tufts study, for instance, of 229 post-menopausal women previously diagnosed with coronary artery disease found that those who consumed more  fish had a slower progression of plaque buildup in their arteries. (A new Rand Health study, however, seems to have dashed hopes that omega-3s might also be effective against cancer.)

  "People should eat more fish." says Alice H. Lichtenstein DSc, director of the Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory at Tufts' Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging. "Not only do you get omega-3s, but you get the benefits of a source of protein that low in saturated fat that you don't get with meat and cheese."

  The American Heart Association, whose Nutrition Committee Lichtenstein chairs, recommends that healthy adults eat fish twice a week. But the CFNAP poll found that only 17% of US adults eat fish that often.

The Rise of Mercury Worries

The 2004 seafood consumption advisory warned pregnant and nursing women, women who might become pregnant and young children to avoid certain species of fish especially prone to mercury: shark, swordfish, tilefish and king mackerel. The advisory said these at-risk individuals can safely consume up to 12 ounces weekly of species low in mercury, such as shrimp, salmon, pollock, catfish and canned light tuna, and up to six ounces weekly of fish moderate in mercury, such as canned albacore tuna.

Power plants release mercury into the air; the mercury then falls into oceans and streams, where it accumulates in fish. When the government issued it warnings, many people just heard "avoid fish because of mercury."

  If all Americans cut their Fish consumption by one-sixth-as pregnant women apparently did following the 2001 mercury advisory-the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis study estimates an additional 8,000 deaths annually would result from heart disease and stroke. The study also found that by skipping fish entirely, mothers to-be are missing out on the benefits of safe seafood to their unborn children's cognitive development.

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