Something Fishy About Mothers and Fish Story

[Guest guest]

After the story about more apples and more fish in pregnancy, I researched flaxseed oil and have been taking two tablespoons, and eating an organic apple every day. I just checked the PCRM website and found this follow-up story. Seems it might not be completely true. I'll continue to take the flaxseed oil, though. http://www.npr.org/blogs/news/2007/10/theres_something_fishy_about_m.html Health editor Joe Neel sent me this note about a story the science desk has been looking into today: When they picked up The Washington Post this morning, NPR's science editors wondered if there might be something fishy going on in a front-page story about how much fish pregnant women and new mothers should eat. As NPR reported last summer, the Institute of Medicine recommends that these women eat no more than 12 ounces of fish and seafood per week. That's because of concerns about mercury contamination of fish and the effects it can have on fetal and infant brain development. But the Post was reporting about a new recommendation telling pregnant women and new mothers to eat at least 12 ounces a week. The advice came from a nonprofit group calling itself Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies. It's been around since 1981, according to its Web site, and as of this morning, it listed 150 rather august members, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the March of Dimes, the

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, some big drug companies and a few community groups, among others. So you'd tend to trust them... But something wasn't right. We get to look at scientific studies early here, before they are released to the public — and there wasn't anything new about fish safety that we were aware of. So the editors assigned NPR's consumer health reporter Allison Aubrey to find out what was going on. And as it would happen, as she cast about, Aubrey started netting some big ones. At the same time, across town, a panel of doctors representing HMHB's Maternal Nutrition Group were outlining the new advice. Then, in the question-and-answer session, someone put Betty Jordan of HMHB on the grill. She asked Jordan if there was any link

between the more-fish-is-good-for-you recommendations and the National Fisheries Institute, an industry-funded group. The answer from Jordan: Yes, the HMHB did take $60,000 from NFI specifically to design a "micro" Web site to promote the new guidelines and to produce other "educational" materials. On further probing, the docs said they hadn't taken any money — though a couple said they'd taken "honorariums" for coming to coalition meetings. At deadline this afternoon, the HMHB still hadn't returned NPR's phone calls seeking more information. Meanwhile, Aubrey's calls were turning up other problems. The American Academy of Pediatrics told her that the group had no idea it was being associated with the guidelines, with which it disagrees. Strongly. Ditto the March of Dimes, CDC and at least one agency at the NIH. By 2 p.m., we noticed that the list of members on HMHB's Web site was shrinking — the pediatricians were no longer there. (We're still watching.) And

the Web archiver at the Wayback Machine was reporting that past versions of the page had been blocked — so we couldn't see for sure who else might be cutting bait. Update: While HMHB didn't return our calls in time for a story on All Things Considered, Judy Meehan of HMHB did give us a ring in time for the Central and Western feeds of the show. She clarified that the fish industry didn't pay for the new scientific research cited by the panel of doctors making the recommendations, only for their travel expenses to a Chicago meeting, where they came up with their new advice. - Joe Neel