Introduction to Risk Management

2014

Annals of Internal Medicine, 2005

To conduct this research and write this document, Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA) formed a Research Team of scientists from a number of key disciplines, including risk assessment, nutrition science, environmental anthropology, medicine and public health, risk communication and toxicology. The Research Team members each contributed knowledge and inspiration from their respective fields to write or contribute to specific chapters, as well as collaborate on the quantitative framework outline.

Environmental Science & Technology, 2007

Viewpoint S cientific uncertainties often make it difficult for environmental policy makers to determine how to communicate risks to the public. A constructive, holistic, multisectoral dialogue about an issue can improve understanding of uncertainties from different perspectives and clarify options for risk communication. Many environmental issues could benefit from explicit promotion of such a dialogue. When issues are complex, unconstructive advocacy, narrow focus, and exclusion of selected parties from decision making can erode public trust in science and lead to cynicism about the policies of government and the private sector. Differences in data choices have led to conflicting interpretations about an important consumer issue.

Journal of the World Aquaculture Society, 2010

Consumer perception affects how food products are positioned in the marketplace. In addition, misperception about product safety influences how products are labeled and marketed. Regulatory compliance issues facing aquaculture producers are driven both by science-based concerns over product safety and politics. Consumer perception of product safety often has little connection with any legitimate public health concern. This is particularly true for aquatic foods which have been politically targeted throughout the years by inaccurate assessment of product safety as part of a larger strategy to discourage purchases or to direct purchase to politically more acceptable product, for example from a "farmed" fish to a wild harvested one. Activists target the safety of foods harvested from the marine environment to promote an environmental agency, most recently mercury raising content in pelagic species such as tuna to scare women, particularly pregnant women, from consuming this otherwise healthful food. Recent scares have involved colorant and feed additives for farmed salmon, leading to mandatory retail labeling in Western US markets of "added color" for all farm raised salmonids to increase consumer concern about product safety and discourage purchases. These efforts detract from improving overall food safety, specifically risks of microbial contamination and growth.

Environmental Research, 2005

Efforts to provide for public health protection from environmental contaminants in fish have resulted in various advisories or recommendations with regard to fish consumption from local, state, and federal agencies. These advisories are based on measured levels of contaminants in fish that are combined with values for body weight and portion size to produce an estimate of an ''acceptable'' consumption frequency (e.g., eat no more than once per month). Because values for body weight and portion size are generally generic default values, they do not necessarily relate to a specific population or to any individual in that population. Thus, the use of default values may result in underprotection or overprotection in any given case. Given the benefits of fish consumption and the risks from overexposure to various toxicants, vigilance is required by custodians of public health to ensure that populations are protected while being cautious not to over-or underprotect them. In this analysis, we examine the ''acceptable'' consumption limits derived for fish species/groups consumed by three specific populations and determine the extent of public health protection afforded by these limits. To accomplish this, the ''acceptable'' consumption frequencies are derived based, in part, on default assumptions and are compared to intakes calculated from empirically derived species-specific individual consumption and demographic data. Sensitivity analyses and population-specific probabilistic assessments of exposure are conducted to identify those values and/or assumptions which might significantly influence the resulting fish consumption advisories. Three populations were chosen for study based on their ability to represent populations of greatest concern: those most sensitive and/or those most exposed. We conclude from this investigation that consumption pattern data, contaminant data and body weight data together can be used to make fish consumption advisories more focused and, therefore, less likely to be under-or overprotective.

Environment International, 2021

Oily seafood is an important food source which contains several key nutrients beneficial for human health. On the other hand, oily seafood also contains persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including the dioxin-like compounds (DLCs) polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) and dioxin-likepolychlorinated biphenyls (dl-PCBs), potentially detrimental to human health. For a comprehensive comparison of the beneficial and potentially adverse health effects of seafood consumption, risk-benefit analyses are necessary. Risk-benefit analyses require reliable quantitative data and sound knowledge of uncertainties and potential biases. Our dataset comprised more than 4000 analyses of DLCs and more than 1000 analyses each of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and vitamin D in the three most important Norwegian commercial oily seafood species: Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus), Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus) and farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). The levels of several DLC congeners were below the limit of quantification (LOQ), making estimation of true levels challenging. We demonstrate that the use of upper bound substitution of censored data will overestimate, while lower bound substitution will underestimate the actual levels of DLCs. Therefore, we implement an alternative robust statistical method by combining Maximum Likelihood Estimation, Regression on Order Statistics and Kaplan-Meier analyses, which is better suited for providing estimations of levels of these contaminants in seafood. Moreover, we illustrate the impact of the toxic equivalency factor (TEF) system on estimation of the sums of DLCs by comparing the TEF system to an alternative system of relative effect potency (REP) factors (Consensus Toxicity Factors). The levels of nutrients and contaminants were related to adequate intake (AI) and tolerable weekly intake (TWI), respectively. We used AI and the TWI values established by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The benefit and the risk were further viewed in the context of the Norwegian average intake of oily fish, and the Norwegian governmental official dietary recommendations of oily fish. Our results showed that both benefit and risk are met at the levels found of nutrients and DLCs in oily seafood. The comprehensive quantitative data presented here will be a key for future risk-benefit assessment of oily fish consumption. Together, our results underline that a refined formalized integrative risk-benefit assessment of oily fish in the diet is warranted, and that the data and methodology presented in this study are highly relevant for future integrated and multidisciplinary assessment of both risks and benefits of seafood consumption for human health.

Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, 2007

We designed the CORAI (COnsumer Risk Advisory Inquiry) study to observe consumer reactions' after an advisory revealing risk of methylmercury contamination together with benefits of Long-Chain Poly Unsaturated Fatty Acids of the n-3 variety (LC n-3 PUFA). The message was very close to the ones commonly delivered by national food agencies and included recommendations for women of childbearing age and children below 15 years old. Two groups of subjects including consumers at risk were selected. Participants recorded the frequency of their fish consumption detailed by species for them and their family over a one-month period one month before, a month immediately after and 3 month after the advisory. Results were compared between consumers receiving the advisory and controls.

Journal of the World Aquaculture Society, 2010

Marine fish oils (MFO) are used in salmon diets to mimic the natural diet, to ensure that essential fatty acid requirements for good fish growth and health are met, and to provide salmon flesh with an omega-3 highly unsaturated fatty acid content that can benefit human health. However, an extensive use of MFO in formulated salmonid diets is perceived as an unsustainable use of wild marine fish stocks. In addition, MFOs have a background level of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) unrelated to aquaculture practices. This review considers recently completed studies using alternative lipid sources of terrestrial origin as replacements for MFO and shows that the composition of conventional finfish diets can be altered to reduce the reliance on MFO while concurrently maintaining fish health as well as reducing background levels of POPs. A challenge still ahead is the need for a concerted and sustained outreach to ensure that the public is aware of such improvements to seafood quality so that the preoccupation of the news media with presenting negative images of fish culture to the public is combated.

International Journal of Nutrition and Food Sciences, 2015

The paper discusses the issue of feed ingredients in aquaculture as a telling example of implementation of a sustainable food safety strategy, aimed at protecting the health of next generation, under the One Health paradigm. Finfish and fishery products are a main nutrition security component as a valuable source of animal protein, particularly in developing countries. In addition, they are a critical source of essential oligo-nutrients, such as polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and iodine. Production and consumption of fish has greatly increased in the last decade, mostly due to the growth of aquaculture. While the demand for aquaculture products continues to increase, there is the need to address consumers' concerns related to the nutritional quality and safety. In fact, both wild and farmed finfish can represent a significant source of exposure to contaminants for the consumer: noticeably, caught and farmed fish have a comparable content of nutrients and contaminants. Aquaculture feeds made of fish meal and fish oil are the main vehicle for transfer of environmental pollutants to farmed fish. The main fish contaminants (e.g., methylmercury, PCBs, PBDE) can bioaccumulate and affect development in humans. Feed ingredients as well fish species have a different liability to contamination depending, e.g., on the lipophilicity of the specific chemicals. Up-to-date risk-benefit assessments show that high intake of fish may lead to an undesirable intake of pollutants which is not sufficiently balanced by the concurrent intake of protective nutrients, such as PUFA. The use of vegetable-based feed ingredients in aquaculture has been explored from the standpoints of economic sustainability and fish productivity to a greater extent than from those of food safety and nutritional value. Available data show that vegetable oils can significantly modulate the lipid profile in fish flesh, depending on the oil and fish species. The use of vegetable ingredients can drastically reduce the accumulation of the main contaminants in fish; likewise the presence of other "unconventional" contaminants (e.g. PAHs) and the nutritional value of fish flesh could deserve more attention in the assessment of novel aquaculture feeds.

European Journal of Nutrition & Food Safety, 2015