In multivariate models, ∑PBDE levels were positively associated with age, years consuming sport fish, shellfish meals, and computer use and negatively associated with recent weight loss.
All participants were asked about the number of fish or shellfish meals they had eaten in the past 30 days.
The mean number of fish and shellfish meals for the "other" racial/ethnic group was higher than for the remaining groups, although the 95% CIs overlapped with all except Mexican Americans.
The total number of shellfish meals (that is, mollusks and crustaceans) was computed and then categorized as "never or less than once a month", "1 4 a month" and "2 or more a week".
Blood mercury (BHg) concentrations were seven times higher among women who reported eating nine or more fish and/or shellfish meals within the past 30 days than among women who reported no fish and/or shellfish consumption in the past 30 days.
After the dissemination of advice by the U.S. FDA in 2001 recommending that women of childbearing age should avoid consuming specific long-lived predatory fish high in mercury and limit fish and shellfish meals, pregnant women in eastern Massachusetts decreased their total fish consumption, resulting in an estimated decline of 17% to 1.4 servings per month (Oken et al. 2003).
To determine whether observed differences in whole-blood mercury levels were most likely to reflect differences in dietary fish consumption rather than exposure to elemental or inorganic mercury, we examined self-reported fish consumption (number of fish and shellfish meals in the preceding 30 days) among female NHANES participants 16 49 years of age (n = 3,481) by racial/ethnic group.
"It's going to be nearly impossible to get a non-shellfish-contaminated meal in Japan," she points out.
Statistical analysis, adjusted for a number of potential confounders, showed that women who ate 2 or more meals of shellfish per week had a statistically significant 2.14 greater likelihood of having an SGA baby (defined as having birth weight below the tenth percentile for a given gestational age and sex) compared with those who ate shellfish less than once per month.
Overall, finfish accounted for 62% of meals and 80% of estimated Hg intake, whereas shellfish accounted for 38% of meals and 20% of estimated Hg intake.
