To the Editor: We report elevated mercury levels in three infants, each the only child of Chinese parents living in Sydney. All three children had eaten fish congee (a rice and fish porridge) as a weaning food and ate fish regularly as toddlers. Their parents had sought medical advice for either developmental delay or neurological symptoms in the children.
The full article is accessible to AMA members and paid subscribers. Login to read more or purchase a subscription now.
Please note: institutional and Research4Life access to the MJA is now provided through Wiley Online Library.
- 1 Centre for Population Health, Western Sydney Area Health Service, Sydney, NSW.
- 2 Westmead, NSW.
Correspondence: stephen_corbett@wsahs.nsw.gov.au
- 1. Leung SSF, Lui SSH. Nutritive value of Hong Kong Chinese weaning diet. Nutr Res 1990; 10: 707-715.
- 2. Leung SS, Lee WT, Lui SS, et al. Fat intake in Hong Kong Chinese children. Am J Clin Nutr 2000; 72 (5 Suppl): 1373S-1378S.
- 3. Grandjean P, White RF, Weihe P, Jørgensen PJ. Neurotoxic risk caused by stable and variable exposure to methylmercury from seafood. Ambul Pediatr 2003; 3: 18-23.
- 4. Harada M. Minamata disease: methylmercury poisoning in Japan caused by environmental pollution. Crit Rev Toxicol 1995; 25: 1-24.
- 5. Kjellström T, Kennedy P, Wallis S, et al. Physical and mental development of children with prenatal exposure to mercury from fish. Stage II: interviews and psychological tests at age 6. Stockholm: National Swedish Environmental Protection Board, 1989.
- 6. Food Standards Australia New Zealand. Final assessment report. Proposal P265 — Primary production and processing standard for seafood. Canberra: FSANZ, 2005.
- 7. Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives. Evaluation of certain food additives and contaminants. Sixty-first report of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives. WHO Technical Report Series No. 922. Geneva: WHO, 2004.
- 8. Bambrick HJ, Kjellström TE. Good for your heart but bad for your baby? Revised guidelines for fish consumption in pregnancy [editorial]. Med J Aust 2004; 181: 61-62. <MJA full text>
Online responses are no longer available. Please refer to our instructions for authors page for more information.