By DEEPTI HAJELA

NEW YORK - A quarter of adults in the city have elevated levels of mercury in their blood, linked to how much fish they eat, according to survey results released Monday by the health department.

Rates were higher among more affluent residents compared to those in lower income groups and were high among Asians, who eat more fish, the survey showed.

While mercury at the levels found in New Yorkers doesn’t really pose a risk for most adults, the city suggested that children under 6 years old and pregnant and breast-feeding women avoid fish with high mercury contents over concerns that it increases the risk of cognitive problems in children.

“It’s not bad for the average adult who isn’t reproducing,” said Daniel Kass, assistant commissioner for environmental surveillance and policy at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. “For a brief period of life, during pregnancy, while breast-feeding, it would be best to keep mercury levels down.”

The health department released a brochure to inform people about the issue. It tells pregnant and breast-feeding women which types of fish have the lowest mercury counts and can be eaten more often and which should be eaten rarely or not at all.

Pregnant women could eat tilapia, herring or whiting up to five times per week because those fish are very low in mercury, based on an adult serving size of 6 ounces, the health department said. But they should not eat Chilean sea bass, swordfish or fresh tuna, which are too high in mercury, it said.

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