MERCURY CONTAMINATION THROUGH FISH CONSUMPTION - A MODEL FOR PREDICTING AND PREVENTING HAZARDOUS BEHAVIOR ON A COMMUNITY-LEVEL

The relationship between the consumption of fish containing methylmerc ury (MeHg) and human MeHg levels has been studied for many years. Alth ough this relationship has been demonstrated and some models have been developed to assess the risks associated with fish consumption, there is still a need for a simple and efficient predicting tool that can b e applied to community settings. This paper provides such a practical model developed through empirical evidence using two sources of data. In ideal conditions, models used to identify hazardous behaviour in in dividuals would be derived from theoretical and clinical models, howev er, these conditions are often technically difficult to meet. To overc ome this problem, a more empirically oriented model has been developed , based on the estimation of personal mercury intake and its compariso n to the Tolerable Daily Intake. The theory and methodology of the mod el development, including technical limitations, are presented first. The methodology is then applied to the real data to create the final m odel and the results given. Finally, a discussion of the model's accur acy, limitations and usefulness as a community health assessment tool is presented.