SREL Reprint #2402

Factors in exposure assessment: ethnic and socioeconomic differences in fishing and consumption of fish caught along the Savannah River

Joanna Burger1,2, Warren L. Stephens, Jr.2,3, C. Shane Boring2,3, Michelle Kuklinski2, J. Whitfield Gibbons3,
and Michael Gochfeld2,4

1Nelson Biological Laboratory, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey,
604 Allison Road, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854- 8082
2Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, 170 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854
3Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, Drawer E, Aiken, South Carolina 29802
4Environmental and Community Medicine, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School,
675 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854-5635

Abstract: South Carolina has issued fish consumption advisories for the Savannah River based on mercury and radionuclide levels. We examine differences in fishing rates and fish consumption of 258 people interviewed while fishing along the Savannah River, as a function of age, education, ethnicity, employment history, and income, and test the assumption that the average consumption of fish is less than the recreational value of 19 kg/year assumed by risk assessors. Ethnicity and education contributed significantly to explaining variations in number of fish meals per month, serving size, and total quantity of fish consumed per year. Blacks fished more often, ate more fish meals of slightly larger serving sizes, and consumed more fish per year than did Whites. Although education and income were correlated, education contributed most significantly to behavior; people who did not graduate from high school ate fish more often, ate more fish per year, and ate more whole fish than people who graduated from high school. Computing consumption of fish for each person individually indicates that (1) people who eat fish more often also eat larger portions, (2) a substantial number of people consume more than the amount of fish used to compute risk to recreational fishermen, (3) some people consume more than the subsistence level default assumption (50 kg/year) and (4) Blacks consume more fish per year than Whites, putting them at greater risk from contaminants in fish. Overall, ethnicity, age, and education contributed to variations in fishing behavior and consumption.

Keywords: Ethnicity; fish consumption; advisories; Savannah River; methylmercury; risk perception.

SREL Reprint #2402

Burger, J., W.L. Stephens, Jr., C.S. Boring, M. Kuklinski, J.W. Gibbons, and M. Gochfeld. 1999. Factors in exposure assessment: ethnic and socioeconomic differences in fishing and consumption of fish caught along the Savannah River. Risk Analysis 19:427-438.

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).