The Why and How of NJ Fish
Consumption Advisories
Alan Stern, Dr.P.H.
Division of Science, Research and
Technology
Why does NJ issue fish
consumption advisories?
• State government has a clear mandate to protect the
public health, and to provide information to the public
that allows it to make informed choices about
protecting its health
• Very low levels of contaminants result in quite high
levels in desirable fish species
• Fish consumption advisories are advisories
– with few exceptions, advisories have no legal force
– exceptions – crabs, American eel, striped bass from Newark
Bay; eel, stripers from Hudson R. and Harbor; shellfish from
Passaic R.
•
Nationwide
– 45 States have Hg Advisories
– 38 have PCB Advisories 19 States have
Statewide Hg Advisories for freshwaters
– 11 with Coastal Hg Advisories
– 6 states with Coastal PCB Advisories (ME,
NH, MA, RI, CT, & NJ)
• New Jersey is not unique or even unusual
Who issues advisories?
• Advisories are issued jointly by the DEP,
DHSS, and Dept. of Agriculture
• Advisories are drafted by the inter-agency
Toxics in Biota committee
• Reviewed and approved by the three
commissioners
What factors do advisories
consider?
• The advisories consider health risk
– lifetime cancer risk
– non-cancer effects (e.g., neurologic effects)
– developmental effects
• Advisories follow a two-tiered approach
– general population
• allows for less restrictive, population-specific
advisories
– high risk population
What factors are not considered?
• Economics (not explicitly)
– public health protection is considered to be the
primary concern
– however, when uncertainty exists as to the
appropriate public health approach many factors
may ultimately come into play.
• Nutritional benefits
– NJ recognizes the nutritional benefits of fish
consumption
– we do not yet know where the balance point is
between risk and benefit
• this is an area of current concern and future
research
– advisories are given for specific species of fish
• other species are assumed to be “no-restriction”
• our database is limited
• for those species, where data indicate low risk, we
issue specific “no-restriction advisories”
• we are planning to do a better job on getting out
the message on “good” fish
Specifics of NJ Advisories
Methods
• Fish Collections
• Tissues
– fillets (fish)
– muscle and hepatopancreas (e.g., crabs)
• >1,100 tissue samples for Hg
• >1,300 samples for PCBs
Basis for PCB Advisories
• 8 oz (227 g) portion size
• 70 kg
– general
• 62 kg
– high risk
• woman of childbearing age
• EPA cancer slope factor
• General population
– lifetime cancer risk
• 10-5 – 10-4 risk
• for high PCB fish can accumulate yearly intake
into one meal
– “eat once per year”
• High risk population
– women of childbearing age, pregnant women
young children
– based on developmental effects
• 10-4 cancer risk not protective for developmental
effects
– does not accumulate more than one month’s
intake into one meal
• not less frequent than once per month
• concern for “bolus” dose during sensitive stage of
fetal development
Basis for mercury advisory
• General population
– same assumptions as for PCBs
– neurological effects
• old EPA RfD
• High risk population
– same assumptions as for PCBs
– fetal developmental effects
– current EPA RfD
• For both general and high-risk population
– no more than one month’s worth of mercury is
taken in at a single meal
• concern for acute effects and sensitive periods in
development
Trigger concentrations for
mercury advisories
High Risk General
Risk
Population Population
Category (ppm)
(ppm)
4
>0.54
>2.81
Advisory
Do not eat
3
0.19-0.54 0.94->2.81 Eat no more than 1 meal/month
2
0.08-0.18 0.36-0.93 Eat no more than 1 meal/week
1
<0.08
<0.35
No restrictions
Advisories for mercury in
commercial fish
• Currently reference recent joint FDA-EPA
advisory
• However, recent research in NJ calls into
question the applicability of FDA national
data for commercial fish in NJ.
– Joanna Burger and Michael Gochfeld, RutgersUMDNJ
Comparison of Hg conc. in NJ commercial fish
to reported FDA values
species
tuna (fresh)
bluefish
flounder
(Chilean) sea
bass
cod
croaker
porgie
(red) snapper
whiting
NJ
(ppm)
0.64
0.26
0.05
0.38
n
50
53
55
7
0.11
0.13
0.08
0.24
0.03
7
9
8
4
14
FDA
(ppm)
0.38
0.31
0.05
0.27
percent diff
(NJ-FDA)
+ 68%
- 16%
0
+ 41%
0.11
0
0.05
+ 160%
0.19
+ 26%
ND (<0.01)