Fwd: [SSRI-Research] Mercury Study Shows Permanent Damage to Children

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JustSayNo

Fri, 06 Feb 2004 19:50:00 -0000

[sSRI-Research] Mercury Study Shows Permanent Damage to Children

 

-- took them long enough to figure this out... autism anyone?

 

Health - Reuters

 

Mercury Study Shows Permanent Damage to Children

 

http://story.news./news?

tmpl=story & cid=594 & e=1 & u=/nm/20040206/hl_nm/health_mercury_dc

 

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Children whose mothers eat seafood high in

mercury while pregnant can suffer irreparable brain damage,

researchers reported on Friday.

 

The report comes the same week as the U.S. Environmental Protection

Agency (news - web sites) doubled its estimate of how many newborns

had unsafe levels of mercury in their blood.

 

 

The study, done by an international group led by researchers at the

Harvard School of Public Health, also showed that children exposed to

mercury in the womb may suffer permanent damage to their heart

function.

 

 

" We found that both prenatal and postnatal mercury exposure affects

brain functions and that they seem to affect different targets in the

brain, " Philippe Grandjean, who led the study, said in a statement.

 

 

" The fact that the current exposure has an additional effect, despite

the low mercury concentrations is worrisome, especially for

communities where seafood constitutes an important part of the diet, "

Grandjean added.

 

 

Grandjean and colleagues studied more than 1,000 mothers and children

living in Denmark's Faroe Islands. Residents there eat large amounts

of fish, much of which is contaminated with mercury.

 

 

They measured mercury in the cord blood taken from the children at

birth and then in hair samples taken at ages 7 and 14.

 

 

Most of the mothers were suffering from mercury contamination, with

their own hair levels at childbirth on average above 1 microgram per

gram, the limit recommended by the EPA and the independent, non-

government National Research Council (news - web sites).

 

 

Writing in the Journal of Pediatrics, Grandjean and colleagues in

Denmark and Japan said they put electrodes on the heads of the

children to measure electrical signals in the brain. They found

delays in brain signaling, and the higher the mother and child's

mercury load at birth, the more distinct the irregularities.

 

 

They also found these neurological changes led to poorer system

control of heart function. The children with the most mercury in

their blood were less capable of maintaining the normal variability

of the heart rate necessary to secure proper oxygen supply to the

body, Grandjean's team found.

 

 

Just this week an EPA researcher published a report doubling the

estimates of how may U.S. infants have unsafe levels of mercury in

their blood.

 

 

The researcher, Kathryn Mahaffey, estimated that 630,000 infants were

born in the 1999-2000 year with blood mercury levels higher than 5.8

parts per billion, the EPA's level of concern. This is more than

double the previous estimate of 300,000 infants.

 

 

The EPA removed the paper from its Web site on Thursday and was not

immediately available for comment.

 

 

Jane Houlihan of the Environmental Working Group said the study

showed the government needs to limit emissions by coal-burning power

plants, which are the top source of mercury contamination in the

United States.

 

 

Her group called for the FDA (news - web sites) to issue a list of

fish that are lower in mercury and thus safer for pregnant women to

eat, such as wild salmon and haddock. Other groups note than non-fish

sources of healthy omega-3 fatty acids include walnuts and flaxseed

oil, and some fortified foods.

 

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