United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of Water
Mail Coda 4301
EPA-823-F-95-ao4
August 1995
FACT SHEET
Update: National Listing of Fish Consumption Advisories
A new database. The National Listing of Fish Consumption Advisories (NLFCA), is available
from the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. This database includes all available
information describing State-issued fish consumption advisories in the United States. The
database contains information provid&d to the EPA by the States as of September 1994.
Fish consumption advisories are issued by
State government agencies to reduce health
risks associated with exposure to chemical
contaminants (for example, mercury and
PCB's) in freshwater noncommercial fish and
shellfish. Advisories are recommendations to
limit consumption of certain species of fish
taken from waters where chemical contanv,
inants are present.
Included in the database is information on the
types of advisories (such as restricted
consumption or fishing bans), the species of
fish and the chemicals that are included in
each advisory/ segments of the population
that are affected, the geographic location of
each advisory (including landmarks, river
miles, and latitude - longitude coordinates of
the waters included), dates of issue, and
State government agency contact and phone
numbers. It can also generate maps thai
illustrate any combination of these param-
eters. Future revisions of the database will
also include the percentage of waterbodies
under advisory for each State.
As reported. 46 States have fish consumption
advisories in effect. Seven States issued
statewide advisories and 39 issued advisories
for 1,250 specific waterbodisa. These
waterbodies represent approximately 14% of
the nation's total lake acreage, 4% of the
nation's river miles, air of the Cream Lakes,
and a targe portion of the nation's coastal
areas.
The number of advisories reported to EPA in
1994 represents a 20% increase in the total
number of advisories that were issued by the
States in 1993. The increased number of
advisories issued by the States in 1994
resulted from an increase in the number of
assessments that were performed by the
States. These additional assessments were
conducted as a result of the increased
awareness of health risks associated with the
consumption of chemically contaminated fish.
A map of the United States showing the
number of advisories reported by each State
is printed on the reverse side of this fact
sheet.
The database used to generate these figures
was developed by EPA to assist federal.
State, and local government agencies and
Indian Tribes assess the potential for human
health risks that are associated with exposure
to chemical contaminants in noncommercial
fish and shellfish. The data contained in this
database may also be used by the general
public to identify locations and specific
information for each body of water for which
an advisory has been issued.
The NLFCA is PC-based and is available to the
public free of charge on five 3.5 inch
diskettes. There is no written report
summarizing this information, for copies of
the diskettes, you may call the United States
Environmental Protection Agency, National
Center for Environmental Publications and
Information, 11029 Kenwood Rd-, Cincinnati,
Ohio, 4S242 {513-489-8190) and refer to
document number EPA-823-C-95-001.
In October 1995 EPA will make this database
available for downloading from Internet
through the following URL:
http:// www. epa.gov/water
For more information regarding fish consump-
tion advisories, you may contact Jeffrey
Bigler, EPA, at 202-260-1305.
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