Focus Pocus

The White Paper:

J. Houlihan and R. Wiles. Environmental Working Group. 2002. http://www.ewg.org/reports/FocusPocus/focuspocus.pdf

Review This White Paper’s Executive Summary:
http://www.ewg.org/reports/FocusPocus/focuspocus.pdf

The Purpose of this White Paper:
These authors discuss their beliefs about whether the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is withholding information from pregnant women on methylmercury-contaminated fish - with the FDA citing focus groups as a justification.

Some Background, Methods, Results, Caveats, and Other Select Points:

• This is not a peer-reviewed, scientific paper.
• This white paper was first publicly distributed in 2002.
• In May 2001, FDA’s Director of the Division of Risk Assessment told the press that after it conducted focus groups, the FDA concluded that if U.S. women were given a more comprehensive list of fish that should be avoided or eaten only in moderation during pregnancy, U.S. women would simply not eat fish at all.
• The Environmental Working Group investigated this situation by obtaining and analyzing about 1,036 pages of the FDA focus group transcripts acquired using the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
• The Environmental Working Group describes itself as a nonprofit environmental research organization based in Washington, D.C.
• By analyzing various, select government and private sector databases, environmental monitoring programs, and scientifically-grounded research, the Environmental Working Group develops what it believes are high-profile publications, computer databases, and Internet resources that it believes consistently create public awareness and concern about high priority environmental problems - plus what the Environmental Working Group believes are possible solutions.
• This particular white paper was paid for by The W. Alton Jones Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trust, The Turner Foundation, and the Joyce Foundation. The white paper states that any and all opinions in this white paper are those of the listed authors - and do not necessarily reflect the views of those paying for this white paper to be written and publicly distributed.
• When the FDA released a health advisory for mercury in seafood in January 2001, it was at once openly criticized by certain scientists and some public health activists for not instead adopting the methylmercury recommendations of a National Academy of Sciences study on mercury in 2000. The FDA was also criticized by some people for not giving U.S. pregnant women more complete information on what certain types of fish to not eat.

A Bottom Line:

• The Environmental Working Group believed in 2002 that it did find what it describes as compelling evidence that the FDA is failing to protect the U.S. public from methylmercury-contaminated seafood
• The Environmental Working Group believed in 2002 that newly available, internal FDA documents legally obtained by them reveal that FDA - under pressure from the seafood industry - is deliberately withholding critical information from U.S. pregnant women on methylmercury-contaminated tuna and certain other types of fish. The Environmental Working Group also believes that the FDA is somehow using focus group sessions as a justification for this Environmental Working Group-presumed, intentional and malicious behavior(s).
• The Environmental Working Group also believed in 2002 that the word-for-word account of focus group discussions flatly contradicts the FDA’s assertion that if U.S. women were given a more comprehensive list of fish that should not be eaten- or eaten only in moderation during pregnancy – then U.S. women would simply not eat fish at all.
• The Environmental Working Group believed in 2002 that certain internal FDA focus group transcripts reviewed by the Environmental Working Group - considered together with publicly available FDA documents - show that the FDA is failing to regulate methylmercury levels in seafood, has shut down its methylmercury monitoring program, has not issued an enforceable limit for methylmercury in fish, and has not implemented the methylmercury education program that the FDA promised.

Find This White Paper for Your Review:
Focus Pocus. http://www.ewg.org/reports/FocusPocus/focuspocus.pdf