Fish Nutrients Outweigh Risks

A new study in the October 18 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association performed by scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health shows that the nutritional benefits of eating fish outweigh the risks of the mercury, PCB and dioxin contamination. This might sound surprising, but we hinted at it in this story by Gretchen Cuda. But conflicts of interest make it difficult to trust many of the studies.

For this recent study, one of the authors seems to have accepted payments both from industry as well as environmental and other organizations -- but nothing as seemingly egregious as those mentioned in Cuda's story:

Financial Disclosures: Dr Rimm reports that he has received research funding from Merck, Pfizer, and GlaxoSmithKline, and that he has received payment or honoraria for presentations about food and diets from the US Environmental Protection Agency, the US Food and Drug Administration, the Institute of Medicine, the Culinary Institute of America, the International Chefs Association, and academic conferences funded by Bunge and Unilever. Dr Mozaffarian reported no financial disclosures.