Recent Advisory News

• FDA Panel Meets to Discuss Tuna - According to an article in the Washington Post, an FDA advisory panel met for 3 days in late July and urged the FDA to advise pregnant women to restrict their consumption of tuna due to concern over mercury levels in fresh and canned tuna. The FDA already tells pregnant women not to eat four fish species that contain the highest levels of mercury: shark, swordfish, king mackerel, and tilefish. The FDA deems safe fish that contain less than 1 part per million of methylmercury. The average commercial fish contains 0.12 ppm, whicle canned tuna on average contains only slightly more than that, but amounts can vary to as much as 0.75 parts per million, the FDA said. The panel decided that the FDA should quickly research the health risk level of canned tuna, and in the interim urge that pregnant women and young children limit their consumption to two 6-ounce cans of tuna per week if that is the only fish they eat, or a single can per week if they also consume other seafood (advice modeled off that from Wisconsin's state fish advisory). The panel also urged the FDA to work more closely with the EPA and states issuing advice that takes into account recreationally caught fish, and to do a better job of educating women about what seafood they should eat.

  Source: Lauran Neergaard. Friday, July 26, 2002. The Washington Post

• Ohio Cuts Fish Advisory Program - The Ohio Department of Health abolished its fish consumption advisory program in July, after the department was told to cut $12.3 million from its budget as part of state budget cuts. Eliminating the fish advisory program will save the state approximately $100,000. Ohio is the first Great Lakes state to eliminate a fish advisory program, although Michigan drastically cut funding to its program earlier this year. The Ohio EPA will continue to assess fish samples to evaluate which waterways are meeting goals of the federal Clean Water Act, but the Health Department will no longer assess the effect of contamination on humans who eat the fish, nor will the state continue to print consumption advisories on posters and brochures given to anglers when they buy fishing licenses. Warnings based on data collected over the past five years will remain on the Ohio Department of Health Web site.

  UPDATE: On August 2, another article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that Ohio is reconsidering eliminating the fish advisory program, and might reinstate the program next summer. U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich demanded August 1 that the state keep the program and even expand it. Kucinich said his staff will research the issue and draft legislation. He proposed making advisories mandatory and having the federal government set uniform standards for all states to follow. "I'm not saying don't eat the fish, but people have a right to know if they consume certain quantities of fish if it will have an adverse effect to their health," Kucinich said.

  Source: John C. Kuehner. July 31, 2002. The fish are still not safe to eat, but state no longer will tell you. The Cleveland Plain Dealer.

  Source: John C. Kuehner. August 2, 2002. State reconsidering end of fish-eating advisories. The Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Current Events, News and Journal Articles

• EPA Study: Health Risks for Columbia Basin Native Americans Consuming Fish - An EPA study into tribal health risks related to fish consumption, which began in 1989 as a partnership with the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, has recently been completed. EPA and tribal researchers from 4 tribes in Washington, Oregon and Idaho found that tribal adults eat up to 48 fish meals a month, and that the tribes as a whole eat fish at rates 6 to 11 times that of the national average. The study also measured contamination of both resident fish and migratory fish, such as coho, chinook and steelhead. The fish were analyzed for 132 chemicals, including pesticides, metals and organic pollutants. The most frequently detected contaminants were metals, PCBs, banned pesticides such as DDT, and dioxins. For Native Americans eating the most migratory species, the risk of developing cancer ranged from 7 cases in every 10,000 people to 2 in 1,000, while people eating large amounts of long-lived resident fish, such as sturgeon, had a 2-in-100 risk of cancer at some locations. Regulatory agencies generally take steps to protect the public when the risk falls between 1 in a million and 1 in 10,000. The Washington Health Department hasn't issued any health advisories on fish consumption for the Columbia, but it has made recommendations for safer food preparation and is redesigning its fish advisory program to tell people how much of a certain fish they can safely eat, rather than looking at risk based on average consumption rates. In response to the study, Columbia Basin tribes are forming task forces and continuing research to determine individual health risks, as well as how best to communicate the information with their members. A Yakama Nation study is being done to calculate if tribal members have higher cancer rates.

  Source: Lisa Stiffler. July 31, 2002. Toxic fish imperil tribes. Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

• Dioxins, Furans, and Dioxin-like PCBs in Arctic and Antarctic Animals - This study measured concentrations of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), dibenzofurans (DFs), and dioxin-like PCBs in livers of polar bears from the Alaskan Arctic and in eggs of Adelie penguin and south polar skua and weddell seal liver, fish and krill from Antarctica. Concentrations of total PCDD/DFs in livers of polar bears ranged from 8 to 66 pg/g. Concentrations of total PCDD/DFs in Antarctic samples were lowest in weddell seal liver (8.9 pg/g) and highest in south polar skua eggs (mean: 181 pg/g). Concentrations of dioxin-like PCBs in polar bear livers were in the range of 1080-3930 ng/g. Concentrations of dioxin-like PCBs in Antarctic samples were lowest in krill (0.9 ng/g) and highest in south polar skua eggs (mean: 1440 ng/g). 23478-PeCDF was one of the dominant congeners found in several samples. Concentrations of TEQs in polar bear livers and skua eggs were close to those that may cause adverse health effects.

  Source: K. S. Kumar, Kannan K., Corsolini S., Evans T., Giesy J. P., Nakanishi J., Masunaga S. 2002. Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, dibenzofurans and polychlorinated biphenyls in polar bear, penguin and south polar skua. Environmental Pollution. Vol. 119(2):151-161.

• Importance of Weight-Normalized Exposure Data for Fish Advisories - In this paper the author argues that, without weight-normalized consumption pattern ]data to determine exposure, health assessment conclusions can potentially mislead the public. His study provides evidence that weight-normalized, species-specific, individual-consumption pattern data are vital for determining exposure levels used to ascertain health protection measures and impacts from consuming contaminated fish. The study demonstrates the importance of adequate consumption pattern data for determining exposure distributions used for public health protection by examining three populations exposed to methylmercury through fish consumption: one recreational angler population and two Native-American populations. The author also conducted sensitivity analyses and population-specific probabilistic assessments of exposure. Results presented in this study indicate that weight-adjusted intake values for a population of concern are warranted when determining exposure distributions and should not be neglected in a health assessment.

  Source: Marien, Koenraad. 2002. The importance of weight-normalized exposure data when issuing fish advisories for protection of public health. Environ Health Perspect 2002 Jul. Vol 110(7):671-7.

• Metal Levels in Fish From the Savannah River - This study reports on the concentrations of arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, manganese, strontium(88) and mercury in the muscle tissue of 11 species of fish from the Savannah River (near the Savannah River Site). The researchers found that higher trophic level fish generally had higher levels of arsenic, chromium, and copper. The relationships between body weight and contaminant levels were generally positive, except for strontium, where there was a negative correlation for bowfin, bass, yellow perch, and shellcracker and no relationship for the other species. The levels of most metals were similar to or lower than levels for the United States generally, and the levels do not appear to pose a health threat to the fish themselves or to higher-order consumers.

  Source: J. Burger, Gaines KF, Boring CS, Stephens WL, Snodgrass J, Dixon C, McMahon M Shukla S, Shukla T, Gochfeld M. 2002. Metal levels in fish from the Savannah River: potential hazards to fish and other receptors.. Environ Res. Vol 89(1):85-97.

• Use of Factor Analysis to Identify Fish Consumption Patterns - This paper reports on the use of factor analysis to identify sport fish consumption patterns in Great Lakes angler families. New York State recreational anglers and their spouses were surveyed in 1991 about their consumption of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie sport fish. Respondents were surveyed again in 1997 regarding sport fish consumption by their children aged 5-10 years. Parental reports revealed that 60% of children had consumed at least one sport fish meal over their lifetime. The authors found significant associations between parental and children's factors, suggesting that sport fish consumption patterns in parents are predictive of similar consumption patterns in children. The authors feel these results suggest that sport fish consumption advisories do not fully prevent consumption of contaminated sport fish during childhood.

  Source: GP Beehler, Weiner JM, McCann SE, Vena JE, Sandberg DE. 2002. Identification of Sport Fish Consumption Patterns in Families of Recreational Anglers through Factor Analysis. Environ Res. Vol 89(1):19-28.

• Status and Trends of Contaminants in Oysters from the Carolinas - This paper examines trends in oyster contaminant concentrations in North and South Carolina. Contaminant concentrations at the 11 NOAA mussel watch project (MWP) sites located in North and South Carolina were compared with the national US MWP data. Decreasing temporal trends were found for As, Cd, total-chlordane, DDT, PCB, and PAHs at some sites. Three sites from North and South Carolina had concentrations of PAHs in the upper 15th percentile on a national scale. One site had high concentrations of butyltins, and two sites had high Se concentrations. All sites from Beaufort, North Carolina, south had high As concentrations.

  Source: G.G. Lauenstein, Cantillo A.Y., O'Connor T.P. 2002. The status and trends of trace element and organic contaminants in oysters, Crassostrea virginica, in the waters of the Carolinas, USA. Sci Total Environ. Vol 285(1-3):79-87.

• Maine Case Study: Management and Communication of Risk - A survey of Maine women of childbearing age found that nearly 20% of respondents had hair mercury levels in excess of those associated with U.S. EPA’s reference dose for methylmercury. Survey data also indicate that the public's awareness of statewide fish consumption advisories is low. As a result, the Maine Bureau of Health has launched a new risk communication campaign employing focus groups to develop materials, using targeted mailings, and partnering with health care providers to provide information to the most at risk population. An important issue has been how to recommend limits on eating fish because of mercury contamination while recommending increased consumption because of the health benefits of eating fish.

  Source: Smith, A. E. 2002. Management and communication of risk: The Maine experience. Teratology. Vol 65(6):315

Meetings and Conferences

For More Information

For more information on EPA's Fish and Wildlife Contamination Program, contact: Jeffrey Bigler at US EPA, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW (4305), Washington, DC 20460; email: bigler.jeff@epa.gov.

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Revised August, 2002