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Safe Eating Guidelines

Filet your fish
  • OEHHA has issued fish consumption advice for many water bodies in California
  • Links to the advisories and safe eating guidelines that OEHHA has developed and issued to date are provided below

OEHHA updated many of the advisories in March 2009. A report describing how OEHHA updated each advisory can be accessed by following this link:

2009 Update of California Sport Fish Advisories

Most advisories are issued because of mercury in fish. In a few cases, fish are contaminated with PCBs or other chemicals.

OEHHA gives two sets of guidelines for fish with mercury. Because babies and children are most sensitive to possible health effects from mercury, OEHHA recommends women ages 18 – 45 and children 1 – 17 years eat fish less frequently than men over 17 years and women over 45 years.

In OEHHA’s advisories, fish are divided into three categories based on their level of contamination.

contamination scale

In the Safe Eating Guidelines in the following advisories:
Fish in the left panel are “green” and have a low level of mercury or another chemical. Fish in the middle are “yellow” and have a medium chemical level. Fish in the right panel are “red” and have a high chemical level.

Follow the written advice under each panel for the fish in it.

Do not combine advice:

You can choose one fish from the “1 serving a week” category to eat that week. Then do not eat other fish from that group or from another category until the next week. If you choose fish that can be eaten 3 servings a week, you can combine fish species from that group for a total of 3 servings in that week.

Safe Eating Guidelines are given as the recommended number of servings a week.

A serving size is about the size of your hand. Give children smaller servings.

OEHHA's advisories, listed below, are arranged generally from north to south.

pink heart= high in Omega-3s

Eating fish with omega-3s can lower heart disease in adults and help babies’ brains to develop. Fish with a pink heart have high levels of omega-3s AND you can eat them at least once a week.

To read the advice for a specific location and find other materials related to that advisory, follow the link for the location that interests you.

Water Bodies with Safe Eating Guidelines for Fish Consumption issued by OEHHA:

If you fish at a location that does not have an advisory, you should follow OEHHA's general guidelines contained in the following link: General Health Advisory Brochure

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have also issued national advice for women and children in their Joint Federal Advisory for Mercury in Fish. This advice recommends that women who are pregnant or might become pregnant, nursing mothers, and young children consume no more than one meal per week of locally caught fish, when no other advice is available, and eat no other fish that week. OEHHA recommends that women of childbearing age and children aged 17 years and younger follow this advice when no other recommendations are in place. More information on the Joint Federal Advisory for Mercury in Fish can be found at http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/fishadvice/advice.html
or:
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/admehg.html

 

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