We have told you in recent weeks: there are new recommendations for pregnant women and children not to eat bluefin tuna or emperor, due to the excess mercury that these fish accumulate and that is harmful to health.
It is not surprising that, given the familiar benefits of Omega3, which contain such fish in abundance, many pregnant women will include it in their usual diet.
Mercury would pass from the mother to the placenta and the fetus, with the consequences that we have mentioned before, and a recently published study found that in 64% of newborns there were mercury levels above the safe level established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
However, as there is no international standard in terms of these levels of security (for when?), If references are taken from other agencies, they would be lower, including the WHO that admits a higher concentration.
This is a Spanish study, conducted between May 2004 and August 2008 that we talked about a few weeks ago and that analyzed the level of mercury in the umbilical cord of 1,883 deliveries in Valencia, Barcelona, Asturias and Guipúzcoa.
It was the Childhood and Environment group, with researchers from different groups and universities across the country, which began in 2004 the most ambitious report in Spain on Fetus exposure to different toxins, such as PCBs, pesticides, city air pollutants and heavy metals (including mercury).
The report concludes that 64% of the children had been exposed through the mother to levels higher than 5.8 micrograms of methylmercury per liter of blood, the level that the US Environmental Protection Agency considers admissible.
By regions, the ones with the highest levels were those in which mothers consume more fish: in Asturias it exceeded 75.6%; in Sabadell 49.1%; in Valencia, 68.4%, and in Guipúzcoa, 64.7%. The study concludes that
The main contributor to cord blood methylmercury levels was the maternal intake of fatty fish.
However, nutrition experts and study leaders insist that it is not intended to create alarm, that there are much more harmful factors to the health of the fetus, such as smoking, and that fish contains basic and beneficial nutrients during pregnancy or childhood , only we would have to avoid bluefin tuna and swordfish or shark.
As we see, it is not about alarming, but after reading the summary of this study that 64% of babies are born with excess blood mercury we ask ourselves why it is not determined exactly what the admissible level is and why there is no attempt to take care of the environment that after all is the place where we live and where we get our food.
