Quackwatch article on thimerosol and autism:  

http://www.quackwatch.org/03HealthPromotion/immu/thimerosal.html



----Original Message Follows----

From: Michael H Goldhaber <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To: Science for the People Discussion List              

<[log in to unmask]>

To: [log in to unmask]

Subject: mercury and autism

Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 16:07:34 -0800



Given the debate about Thimerosol, I thought this report, published  in that 

disreputable capitalist rag, the NY Times, and undoubtedly  based on a study 

financed by Big Phish, lends an ironic note.



Best,

Michael





February 27, 2007 New York Times

VITAL SIGNS

Nutrition: Study Questions Limits on Fish in Pregnancy



By NICHOLAS BAKALAR

The Food and Drug Administration advises pregnant women to avoid  eating 

certain fish entirely, because they may contain unsafe levels  of 

methylmercury, and to limit seafood to 12 ounces, or about two  servings, a 

week. But a British report, published in The Lancet on  Feb. 17, suggests 

that this may not be the best advice.



In an observational study of more than 8,000 pregnant women and their  

children, the researchers found that the children whose mothers ate  less 

than 12 ounces of seafood a week were about 45 percent more  likely to fall 

into the lowest 25 percent in I.Q.



The researchers had the mothers fill out questionnaires about their  diet 

during pregnancy and then report periodically on their children  through age 

8. After controlling for more than two dozen diet and  other variables, the 

researchers found that greater maternal intake  of omega-3 fatty acids in 

fish was associated with better fine motor  development, more prosocial 

behavior and better social development.



They found no evidence that a mother’s consumption of more than 12  ounces 

of seafood a week had any adverse effect on a child’s  development.



“The risks of methylmercury in seafood, many scientists think, have  been 

radically overestimated in an effort to protect children,” said  Dr. Joseph 

R. Hibbeln, the lead author of the study. “The problem  with the formulation 

of the advisory is that there was no calculation  of the benefits of 

seafood.”



Dr. Hibbeln, a researcher at the United States Public Health Service,  

declined to provide diet recommendations. “We are not offering  advice,” he 

said, “just doing a scientific study to provide  information to the other 

agencies that formulate advice.”



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