FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 71. NO. 3 



national average derived externally and may 

 indeed show a measure of conservatism, further 

 strengthening the model solidity. 



Probably the most important consideration 

 is philosophical. How much of the population 

 can be protected? While it seems likely that 

 the Market Facts survey covers the broad fish 

 purchase pattern in the United States there 

 may be people who for reasons of religion, 

 diet, ethnic considerations, etc. do not fall into 

 the Market Facts pattern. Their interests, if 

 threatened, may best be protected by an educa- 

 tion program. It is hard to see how abnormal 

 consumers, i.e., those outside the typical broad 

 fish consumption pattern reviewed, such as 

 weight watchers, can be protected realistically 

 by any guideline that does not seriously restrict 

 the food fish supply and the considerable nutri- 

 tional benefits it has to offer the U.S. consumer. 

 This is probably true of other guidelines based 

 on a normal consumption pattern. For example, 

 it should be noted that the MECCA results 

 demonstrate that adequate protection would 

 be provided to the entire population using a 

 1.5 ppm guideline. Applying the more simplistic 

 basis of a 60-g high daily consumption originally 

 used by FDA to the same population demon- 

 strates less protection since 1.8% of the partici- 

 pants in the survey consumed an average of 

 more than 60 g/day, and therefore on a 0.5 

 ppm guideline, which assumes all fish are at 

 least at this level, these consumers could have 

 exceeded 30 jug/day. In fact, 1% of the partici- 

 pants in the survey consumed 77 g daily, and 

 0.1% consumed 165 g daily. The MECCA pro- 

 gram therefore demonstrates that a greater 

 degree of protection would actually exist using 

 a 1.5 ppm guideline than was planned for in 

 the original calculation which established the 

 present guideline. But in no case under the 1.5 

 ppm guideline did any participant exceed 27.2 

 jL/g/day, nearly 90% of the ADI. 



A final note is that the MECCA program 

 is applicable to estimating the distribution of 

 intakes from fish of any nutritional or po- 

 tentially toxic microconstituent for which the 

 levels in the fish are known. However, its appli- 

 cation to potential toxins is limited to mercury 

 since other elements and compounds occur 

 in the whole food supply. The development 



of a wider survey is now being considered 

 covering the full food spectrum. Participation 

 by FDA and U.S. Department of Agriculture 

 is being investigated. Such a survey could be 

 addressed to any nutrient or constituent in the 

 same manner as MECCA to determine the 

 distribution of the intakes of, say, available 

 iron, vitamin A, DDT, radionuclides, etc. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENT 



The substantial and willing assistance of 

 David Weiss of NOAA Computer Division and 

 many other staff members of the College Park 

 Fishery Products Technological Laboratory and 

 the Economics Research Laboratory of NMFS 

 and NOAA Computer Division, is gratefully 

 acknowledged. 



LITERATURE CITED 



Armstrong. F. A. J., and J. F. Uthe. 



1971. Semi-automated determination of mercury in 

 annimal tissue. At. Absorpt. Newsl. 10: 101-103. 



NilLLER , M. M., AND D. A. NaSH. 



1971. Regional and other related aspects of shellfish 

 consumption — some preliminary findings from the 

 1969 consumer panel survey. U.S. Dep. Commer., 

 Natl. Mar. Fish. Serv., Circ. 361, 18 p. 

 Nash, D. A. 



1971. A survey of fish purchases by socio-economic 

 characteristics, fourth quarterly report November 

 and December 1969 and January 1970. U.S. Dep. 

 Commer., Natl. Mar. Fish. Serv., Data Rep. 61, 

 148 p. on 3 microfiche. 

 Peterson, C. L., W. L. Klawe, and G. D. Sharp. 



1973. Mercury in tuna: A review. Fish. Bull., 

 U.S. 71:603-613. 

 Riley, F. 



1970. Fisheries of the United States, 1969. U.S. 

 Fish Wildl. Serv., Curr. Fish. Stat. 5300, 87 p. 



Uthe, J. F. 



1971. Determination of total and organic mercury 

 levels in fish tissue. In B. Westley (editor). 

 International symposium on identification and 

 measurement of environmental pollutants, p. 207- 

 212. National Research Council of Canada, 

 Ottawa. Canada. 



Uthe, J. F., F. A. J. Armstrong, and M. T. Stainton. 



1970. Mercury determination in fish samples by 



wet digestion and flameless atomic absorption 



spectrophotometry. J. Fish. Res. Board Can. 



27:805-811. 



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