Subsistence Fish and Seafood Consumption Systematic Review: Literature Evidence Map for the 2023 SRA Annual Meeting
Many chemical contaminants bioaccumulate in fish and seafood species. For many subsistence, indigenous, and ethnic populations, fish, seafood, and other aquatic biota are important sources for food and harvesting these foods is an important identity and cultural practice. Such populations can have greater consumption of aquatic species and subsequently, have increased contaminant exposures compared to the general U.S. population (Terry et. al. 2018). Some previous and current default consumption rates for subsistence populations are based on general population data, instead of data collected to specifically represent subsistence consumers. This systematic review takes the initial steps to develop subsistence consumption rates for fish, seafood, and aquatic plants, birds, and mammals by furnishing an evidence map which inventories the collected studies and how reviewers screened them into categories of ‘included’, ‘excluded’ and ‘supplemental’ based on predetermined criteria. This presentation provides an overview of the background information, data collection methods, issues, data gaps, recommendations, and the screening results pertaining to subsistence seafood consumption.
Over 12,000 studies have been collected and screened as of writing this abstract. The final tally of collected studies, their origin, and screening results will be rendered in a flow chart and other visual data displays of interest. In addition, issues pertaining to the systematic review of subsistence fish and seafood consumption (e.g., data gaps, suppressed rates, scale of representation) will be presented along with recommendations to address them.
This research is designed to inform: CERCLA cleanup goals and health assessments, water quality criteria (WQC) for vulnerable population health, TSCA chemical evaluations, Methodology for Deriving Ambient WQS for the Protection of Human Health revision and Exposure Factors Handbook updates.
Use of default values representing non-subsistence populations (e.g., the general population, sports fishers) tends to underestimate subsistence population exposures. This research furnishes data representing subsistence population to decrease reliance on less accurate default values and to support environmental justice data analyses.
Fish consumption rates for subsistence populations inform important decisions, environmental laws (e.g., CERCLA, TSCA, Section 304(a) of the Clean Water Act), methodologies, environmental standards, and risk assessment data sources. This effort provides a systematic review of the evidence to characterize consumption rates for subsistence populations and make such data available to risk assessors and decision makers to estimate subsistence consumption rates more efficiently effectively and thus, more effectively estimate risks to this vulnerable population.