The Food and Drug Administration has been reviewing the information according to witch pregnant women and young children should limit their consumption of fish to avoid exposure to potentially harmful amounts of mercury.

According to a new draft report some in the agency believe the health benefits of fish far outweigh the risks, and that people should eat more fish, even if it contains mercury. The report also argues that nutrients in fish could raise a child's IQ by 3 points.
But the Environmental Protection Agency has opposed to this through a memo to the White House calling the 270-page FDA study "scientifically flawed and inadequate" and an "oversimplification" lacking analytical rigor.

A joint advisory issued by the two agencies in 2004 cautions women of childbearing age, nursing mothers and young children to limit seafood consumption to 12 ounces a week. But in a draft version of the FDA's new report, the agency says its own modeling shows that children can benefit from eating more fish, not less.

It is a well known fact that high levels of mercury in the bloodstream can harm the nervous system of the young and can cause learning disabilities. Fish are the main sources of human exposure to mercury. Nevertheless the controversy is likely to involve political interest also. Sen. Barbara Boxer, chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, alluded that the FDA should not change anything it cannot back up with the best science.

It’s the Biomonitoring studies that show that as many as 1 in 6 pregnant American women have excessive mercury concentrations. The placenta transports mercury to the developing fetus, causing permanent damage to the developing brain and nervous system.