Fish consumption and contaminant exposure among Montreal-area sportfishers: Pilot study

A 1995 pilot study assessed sport fish consumption and contaminant exposure among Montreal-area residents fishing the frozen St. Lawrence River. Inter views conducted among 223 ice fishers met on-site were used to create an in dex of estimated exposure to fish-borne contaminants. A second stage assess ment of sport fish consumption and tissue contaminant burdens included 25 i nterviewees at the highest level of estimated contaminant exposure (of 38, or 66% of those solicited) and 15 low-exposure fishers (of 41, or 37% of th ose solicited). High-level fisher-consumers reported eating 0.92 +/- 0.99 s port fish meals/week during the previous 3 weeks compared to 0.38 +/- 0.21 (P < 0.05) for the low-level group. Based on the product of consumption fre quency times mass of sport fish meals consumed, high-level consumers ate a mean of 18.3 kg of sport fish annually versus 3.3 kg for the low-level cons umers. Tissue contaminant assessments showed significant (P < 0.05) groupwi se differences: 0-1 cm hair mercury (median 0.73 mu g/g for the high versus 0.23 mu g/g for the low group), lipid-adjusted plasma PCB congeners (Arocl or 1260: median 0.77 mu g/g versus 0.47 mu g/g), and lipid-adjusted plasma DDE (median 0.35 mu g/g versus 0.26 mu g/g). No participant had a hair merc ury or plasma DDE concentration above Health Canada recommendations but 2/2 5 high-level participants (8%) had plasma Aroclor 1260 concentrations above recommended limits. The results of this pilot study suggest that a small n umber of Montreal-area sportfishers consume their catch as often as three t imes weekly and that those consuming sport fish frequently have significant ly higher tissue levels of mercury, PCBs, and DDE than do infrequent consum ers. On the other hand, compared to other groups in Quebec, such as the Inu it or commercial fishers on the North Shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Mo ntreal-area sportfishers eat less fish and have lower tissue concentrations of fish-related contaminants. (C) 1999 Academic Press.