Idaho's poor get donated fish, but not warning

An Idaho food bank last year gave away thousands of pounds of donated local fish without being aware of a state health department warning that eating too much of the mercury-contaminated fish could be dangerous for pregnant women and children.

The Bonner Community Food Bank in Sandpoint, along with as many as eight other groups around the region, received lake trout and whitefish caught from Lake Pend Oreille through an Idaho Department of Fish and Game program.

But since at least 2007, the Department of Health and Welfare has advised pregnant women and children to eat just one monthly meal of lake trout and four meals of whitefish caught from Lake Pend Oreille.

Food bank director Alice Wallace said she gave out 4,700 pounds of fish to the region's low-income people last year but was never told of the health advisory.

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Not being told is no excuse. It is part of your job to know and post these warnings, period!