Consumption Advice

Joint Federal Advisory for Mercury in Fish

Public Health Advisory: What you need to know about mercury in fish & shellfish
Advice to women who may become pregnant, pregnant women, nursing mothers, and young children. The complete advisory message, including a set of frequently asked questions. | Print Version (PDF) (56 K, 2 pages)
Fact Sheet: Background on the FDA/EPA Consumer Advisory on Mercury in Fish and Shellfish
Background on the process used to develop and test the advisory message, a summary of the key messages and of differences between the current and previous advisories. | Print Version (PDF) (67 K, 5 pages)
Advisory programs in your State | State Contacts list
State and tribal environmental programs and departments of health issue fish consumption advisories for their waterbodies. The contacts page lists fish consumption advisory program contact information and links to fish consumption advice from states, tribes, and territories.

Technical Memorandum: Origin of 1 meal / week Freshwater Fish Consumption Rate (PDF) (84 K, 5 pages)
The national advisory includes advise on eating fish caught by family and friends from local waters. The national advice says that in the absence of local advise, you can eat up to 6 ounces (one average meal) per week of fish you catch from local waters, but don’t consume any other fish during that week. This technical memorandum documents the derivation of the 6 ounces per week.
Mean Tissue Mercury Concentrations in Non-commercial Fish from Advisory Sites (PDF) (18 K)
This graph shows measured levels of mercury in a variety of fish species commonly caught during recreational and subsistence fishing activity.

Stakeholder meetings on FDA and EPA development of a joint advisory for methylmercury-containing fish consumption for women of childbearing age and children - July 29-31, 2003.