Nation IN BRIEF : NATIONWIDE : Study Questions Mercury Dangers

Pregnant women who eat fish every day containing low levels of mercury apparently do not harm their babies, as many had feared, according to a major new study. The 15-year study conducted in the Seychelles Islands comes after years of warnings about eating fish during pregnancy. University of Rochester researchers tracked the mental and physical development of more than 1,500 children starting at 6 months of age. So far, tests show no link between the children’s development over their first 5 1/2 years and the levels of mercury contained in their mothers’ hair during pregnancy, which is a measure of the amounts to which the fetuses were exposed.