You can get the health benefits of fish and reduce unwanted contaminants by following this advisory. It may take months or years of regularly eating contaminated fish to build up amounts that are a health concern. Health problems that may result from the contaminants found in fish range from small changes in health that are hard to detect to birth defects and cancer. Mothers who eat highly contaminated fish for many years before becoming pregnant may have children who are slower to develop and learn. The meal advice in this advisory is intended to protect children from these potential developmental problems.
Adults are less likely to have health problems at the low levels that affect children.
Although this advisory is primarily based on effects other than cancer, some contaminants cause cancer in animals. Your risk of cancer from eating contaminated fish cannot be predicted with certainty. Cancer currently affects about one in every three people over a lifetime, primarily due to smoking, diet and hereditary risk factors. Exposure to contaminants in the fish you eat may not increase your cancer risk at all. If you follow this advisory over your lifetime, you will minimize your exposure and reduce whatever cancer risk is associated with those contaminants.