What are the risks to people who routinely catch and eat fish from San Francisco Bay?
Variables that can affect a person’s risk of accumulating dioxin through Bay fish include the type and amount of fish eaten (for example, white croaker samples have shown higher overall concentrations than other fish species), and what parts of the fish are eaten (higher concentrations of dioxin can be found in the organs and fattier parts of the fish). OEHHA’s screening value (recommended safety threshold) is equivalent to a 1 in 100,000 risk of cancer from consuming two fish meals a month at the 0.3 parts per trillion Toxicity Equivalent (TEQ, which takes into account the toxic potency of different dioxins and dioxin-like compounds – see Question 7) of dioxin in the edible portion of the fish. Table 1 shows the associated dioxin risk level from consuming only the specific fish species over a lifetime at both average and high-end consumption rates. The average dioxin concentration is based on fillets, a limited number of composites and number of fish per composite presented. Also, the
