Estimated Fish Consumption Rates for the U.S. Population and Selected Subpopulations
Author:
Jeffrey D. Bigler and Rebecca Jeffries Birch
Date Published:
4/2014
Description:
The U.S. population is exposed to environmental contaminants through the consumption of contaminated finfish and shellfish (Thompson and Boekelheide, 2013; National Research Council, 2000; Ahmed, Hattis, Wolke, and Steinman, 1993). The analysis presented here provides EPA’s recommended methodology for developing a national-level fish consumption rate (FCR) for use in developing ambient water quality criteria as required under Section 304(a) of the Clean Water Act. Assuming the FCR is constant over time, methodologies can be designed to estimate the distribution
of the true, long-term, FCR even though the data are collected over a limited time frame. We can add the term “usual” to “fish consumption rate” (UFCR) to imply that the resulting estimates are those that correspond to long-term averages, rather than short-term estimates and to avoid a distinction between the true rate and the estimated rate. UFCRs were estimated for the general U.S. population, the youth population under 21 years of age, and the adult population 21 years and older. UFCR estimates were calculated for various subpopulations, e.g., by age, gender, race/ethnicity, income, U.S. Census region, and coastal and noncoastal populations. We estimated UFCR for 18 different categories of fish, both raw weight of edible portion and as-prepared weight. These fish types were chosen as they represent various categories of interest to states and tribes. For example, a coastal state may be interested in knowing the UFCRs of total fish and of marine and freshwater + estuarine, separately. An inland state may only be interested in freshwater fish UFCRs.
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