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FISH
Evaluation of Bioaccumulation Factors and Translators for Methylmercury
[02/09/07]
download the Bioaccumulation Factors and Translators for Methylmercury report here
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) has established an ambient water quality criterion for methylmercury in fish tissue of 0.3 ppm, for the protection of human health (U.S. EPA, 2001). A criterion based on fish tissue was considered appropriate for methylmercury, in part, because fish consumption is the major route of human exposure to this contaminant (U.S. EPA, 2001). As effluent standards are necessarily water-based, and must also account for the bioaccumulation of mercury in the aquatic environment, U.S. EPA drafted a report, National Bioaccumulation Factors for Methylmercury, (U.S. EPA, 2000) describing the derivation of national bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) that can be used to convert between methylmercury tissue concentrations in various fish species and water concentrations for regulatory applications. The State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) funded the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment to evaluate these national default bioaccumulation factors, as well as translators used to convert between different forms of mercury in water, and bioaccumulation factors derived from California data for mercury in fish and water compiled by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) for SWRCB into a SWRCB database.
OEHHA reviewed U.S. EPA’s methods and results as presented in their report and describes their methodology, results, strengths and weaknesses of their approach, and its application to California water bodies in this report. OEHHA also reviewed the SWRCB database and BAF values, and developed alternate BAFs and translators based on California data that are analogous to those of U.S. EPA. OEHHA compared the U.S. EPA BAFs and translators to those based on California data and also tested the U.S. EPA values to determine how well they predicted fish tissue concentrations in California water bodies.
