Mothers in the Great Lakes region need to be clearly told which species of fish are contaminated and the kinds of damage that invisible, tasteless toxins can do to a developing fetus or a young child, a U.S.-Canadian commission said Wednesday in Washington. The International Joint Commission said the eight Great Lakes states and two lakeside provinces of Canada haven't targeted their fish consumption warnings to the families that make sport fish a large part of their diets. If the family member who catches the fish isn't the one who cooks it, those warnings often get lost, said Commissioner Alice Chamberlain. Dr. David Carpenter, a public health physician and researcher at the University at Albany, said studies done in Lakes Michigan and Ontario showed behavioral changes and reductions in intelligence in the children of women who ate contaminated sport fish, and a reduction of thyroid function in children who consumed contaminated fish.
Some substances can stay in human tissue for years.