School of Economics, 5782 Winslow Hall, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA.
Environ Res. 2013 Oct;126:232-9. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2013.08.012. Epub 2013 Sep 24.
Humans exposed to methylmercury (MeHg) can suffer from adverse health impacts, e.g., serious neurological damage; however, fish is also a good source of omega-3 fish oils which promotes infants' neurological development. Because eating fish is the primary mechanism of MeHg exposure, federal and state agencies issue fish consumption advisories to inform the public about the risks of eating contaminated fish. An advisory's purpose is to provide information to consumers to increase their knowledge of specific product attributes; however, the difficulty in communicating both the risks and benefits of eating fish leads readers of fish advisories to over-restrict their fish consumption. Because the effectiveness of fish consumption advisories are not often evaluated by states, we help fill this gap by evaluating the effectiveness of Maine's fish consumption advisory in terms of improving knowledge. The results suggest the advisory successfully increased women's knowledge of both the benefits and risks of consuming fish while pregnant. The advisory also increased their ability to differentiate fish by their MeHg content, knowledge of both low and high-MeHg fish and knowledge of detailed attributes of seemingly substitutable goods, such as white tuna, light tuna and pre-packaged salmon. People who did not read the advisory lack the knowledge of how to identify fish that provide: health benefits like Omega-3 fatty acids, or health risks like MeHg; reading the advisory reduces this lack of knowledge. Readers increased ability to make specific substitutions to minimize risk while maintaining the benefits of fish eating suggests the advisory has the potential of reducing MeHg-related health risks while avoiding the drop in fish consumption show in other studies.
人类暴露于甲基汞（MeHg）中会遭受健康损害，例如严重的神经损伤；然而，鱼类也是 omega-3 鱼油的良好来源，有助于婴儿的神经发育。由于吃鱼是接触甲基汞的主要途径，联邦和州机构发布鱼类消费建议，以告知公众食用受污染鱼类的风险。建议的目的是向消费者提供信息，增加他们对特定产品属性的了解；然而，由于难以同时传达吃鱼的风险和益处，鱼类消费建议的读者往往会过度限制他们的鱼类消费。由于各州并不经常评估鱼类消费建议的有效性，我们通过评估缅因州鱼类消费建议在提高知识方面的有效性来填补这一空白。结果表明，该建议成功提高了女性在怀孕期间食用鱼类的益处和风险的认识。该建议还提高了她们区分鱼类的能力，包括其甲基汞含量、低甲基汞和高甲基汞鱼类的知识，以及看似可替代商品的详细属性的知识，如白吞拿鱼、淡金枪鱼和预包装三文鱼。没有阅读建议的人缺乏识别提供健康益处（如欧米伽 3 脂肪酸）或健康风险（如甲基汞）的鱼类的知识；阅读建议可以减少这种知识的缺乏。建议提高了读者做出具体替代的能力，以最大程度地降低风险，同时保持吃鱼的益处，这表明该建议有可能在避免其他研究中显示的鱼类消费下降的同时，降低与甲基汞相关的健康风险。
