Ad campaign encouraging pregnant women to eat seafood is a case study in industry-driven 'research.'

Risking Kids to Sell Fish-


by Andrea Kavanagh-


Like small boats in an unending squall, U.S. consumers are buffeted
from
all sides with information about what kind of food to buy and why it's
good - or bad - for them. In such a convergence of advertising, news
and
constant marketing, timely and accurate information is crucial for
those
who want to make healthy and affordable choices.

That's why it was so disturbing when a group called the National
Healthy
Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition released a report recently
encouraging
pregnant women to increase their consumption of fish despite the
well-known risk of mercury and other contaminants commonly found in
certain seafoods.

For years, the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental
Protection Agency have advised women who are pregnant, might become
pregnant or are breast-feeding to eat no more than 12 ounces weekly of
any
type of fish or shellfish that could be high in mercury, a potent
neurotoxin. And because of the harm that mercury contained in fish
such as
shark, swordfish and tuna poses to the developing nervous systems of
fetuses and infants, the greater scientific and medical community has
been
united in echoing this message.

Scientists and doctors feel strongly about underplaying the threat of
mercury and other contaminants, such as PCBs, in seafood. In fact, a
group
of medical and public health professionals last year publicly
protested a
series of ads in major publications, paid for by the farmed-salmon
industry, that touted the health benefits of farmed salmon for
pregnant
women and their unborn babies. After a Federal Trade Commission
investigation of the ad campaign, the industry group instituted
stricter
advertising review policies.

But it's hard to stop a powerful, if troubling, marketing strategy
once
commercial interests take over. The National Fisheries Institute, the
main
trade association for the fishing industry, paid the travel expenses
of
the researchers who generated the report for the National Healthy
Mothers,
Healthy Babies Coalition and gave each of them honorariums of $1,000
to
$1,500.

In addition, as reported by National Public Radio, the effort to
publicize
the report was subsidized by a $60,000 grant from the National
Fisheries
Institute. Further, Bloomberg News reported that the institute is a
client
of public relations giant Burson-Marsteller, and one of the firm's
employees serves as vice chairman of the coalition.

Such facts suggest ethical lapses in financing the report; worse,
material
used in its preparation was flawed. The key study it cited to
undermine
warnings about mercury-laden fish consumption was an analysis,
published
this year in the medical journal Lancet, of data gathered in 1992 by
the
University of Bristol about local children whose mothers ate fish
while
pregnant. Yet that study's methodology and conclusions were
subsequently
challenged in the Lancet by experts with New Jersey's Department of
Environmental Protection and Maine's Department of Health and Human
Services.

And finally, the researchers who developed the report for Healthy
Mothers,
Healthy Babies didn't bother to vet its decidedly contentious findings
and
advice with the coalition's wider membership before public release.
Members such as the March of Dimes and the American College of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists subsequently said they stood by the
earlier FDA and EPA guidelines, essentially disavowing the report and
its
recommendations.

The misleading report is a classic example of industry-driven
marketing
under the cloak of scientific research. Fortunately for consumers,
however, the FDA and EPA have just repeated their strong stance on the
dangers posed by overconsumption of certain fish, which should help
derail
the effort to promote sales over children's health.

Not all fish are equal in nutritional benefits. And the selective
repackaging of science, combined with slick marketing to sell more
fish to
pregnant women and women of childbearing age, show the height of
corporate
irresponsibility. This is one fishy marketing scheme that consumers
should
throw back.

Andrea Kavanagh directs the National Environmental Trust's Pure Salmon
Campaign, a global effort aimed at improving salmon aquaculture
practices.

Copyright 2007 Los Angeles Times
October 31, 2007 by the Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes. com/news/ opinion/commenta ry/la-oe-
kavanagh31oct31, 0,2236592. story