ST. LOUIS, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- Even though some fish species are likely to be contaminated with mercury, PCBs and toxins, researchers say the benefits of eating seafood outweigh the risks.
Phil Davidson of the University of Rochester Medical School recently presented results of a unique 10-year study of more than 700 children living in the Seychelles Islands, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in St. Louis.
The children's mothers averaged 12 meals of fish a week -- about 10 times the average fish consumption of individuals in the United States -- and those fish contained high levels of methylmercury.
However, the study found that cognitive tests on the children, taken multiple times over the years, found no cognitive defects or other maladies normally attributed to mercury absorption.
Michael T. Morrissey, director of Oregon State University's Seafood Laboratory in Astoria, Ore., advised young children and pregnant women to follow government guidelines to avoid eating shark, swordfish, tilefish and Spanish mackerel.
