CARCINOGENIC HUMAN HEALTH RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH CONSUMING CONTAMINATED FISH FROM 5 GREAT-LAKES AREAS OF CONCERN

Baseline human health risk assessments have been performed at five Are as of Concern (AOC) as part of the U.S. EPA's Assessment and Remediati on of Contaminated Sediments (ARCS) program. Carcinogenic risks were e stimated for complete exposure pathways using risk assessment protocol s adapted from the U.S. EPA Superfund program. The greatest carcinogen ic risks resulted from consuming contaminated fish. This paper provide s a comparison of the risks associated with consuming contaminated fis h from the following AOCs: Ashtabula River, Ohio; Buffalo River, New Y ork; Grand Calumet River/Indiana Harbor Canal, Indiana; Saginaw River, Michigan; and Sheboygan River, Wisconsin. Anglers and their families were at risk of developing cancer over their lifetime as a result of c onsuming certain fish species (e.g., carp) from each AOC. For typical anglers, the probability of developing cancer exceeded one person in a million (i.e., 1 x 10(-6)) for most cases. The carcinogenic risks inc reased by approximately an order of magnitude for recreational anglers . People that relied on fish as a subsistence diet increased their ris k an additional order of magnitude over recreational anglers. These ri sk estimates must be interpreted in the context of all the uncertainti es associated with each step in the risk assessment process.