Fish Advisories: Useful or Difficult to Interpret?

Details

• Personal Author:
  Burger J ; Gochfeld M
• Description:
  One important method of managing risk to the public from eating contaminated fish is for the media to provide more ecological information so that the public can be aware of factors that contribute to increased toxic loads in fish in general. Such information would include increasing the public's understanding of the relative importance of size and age of the fish, trophic level of the fish, habitat of various commercial and recreational fish, and the fate of pollutants within fish (i.e. PCBs tend to be in the fat). In general, toxic loads are higher in fish that are carnivorous and in fish that are older or larger. Big carnivorous fish, such as tuna, shark and bluefish usually have the highest levels of pollutants such as mercury. Older (larger) fish have had longer to accumulate pollutants and thus should be avoided. Risk can be reduced by eating smaller fish and avoiding the skin or fatty tissue. It can be reduced to almost zero by eating fish that feed on only vegetation. This message should be conveyed and reinforced to the public by the media throughout the U.S. It is particularly important for people in coastal areas and in recently-remediated places, such as Superfund, Department of Energy or other previously-contaminated sites. As such sites are perceived to be improving environmentally, the potential for exposure from consumption of fish and other wildlife increases, unless loads are monitored and the public is kept informed. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Environmental Monitoring Environmental Pollution Hazardous Substances Hunting Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Ecological Systems Environmental Contamination Environmental Monitoring Fishing Food Contaminants Pollutants Toxins
• ISSN:
  1073-8673
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  New Jersey ; New York ; OSHA Region 2
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  23-33
• Volume:
  7
• Issue:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20059983
• Citation:
  Risk 1996 Winter; 7(1):23-33
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1996
• Performing Organization:
  Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  19920701
• Source Full Name:
  Risk: Health, Safety & Environment
• End Date:
  19970630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:06821c0bb536db35db4796811c98bf20477feb10b559b7a2970766dced0c79cd995520954e5288802a45581111f24029c5ef5170476b40e7428049ad1dbaa94f
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/224030/cdc_224030_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 621.27 KB ]