State issues fish consumption advisories

Every year the Alabama Department of Public Health issues a comprehensive guide to fish consumption in Alabama, including advisories cautioning about proper portion sizes. This year, advisory cautions included bodies of water in Franklin County.

The guide, created in conjunction with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the Tennessee Valley Authority, includes nutrition information and safe cooking advice but also addresses waterbodies under advisory in each region of the state – and why.

“Unfortunately, certain toxic chemicals have been found in some lakes and rivers in Alabama. Some of these chemicals can accumulate in fish,” the 36-page guide explains. “With some of the chemicals, higher levels of the contaminants can be found in older and/or larger fish. When chemical concentrations are elevated in fish, they can pose health risks to people who eat them. Sampling of fish provides the information (levels of contaminants) needed for issuing the advisories.”

An advisory is a recommendation regarding consumption. Recommendations are made for how many meals per week or per month of a certain fish the ADPH considers as safe to eat, with a meal being about 8 ounces of fish.

In Franklin County, which falls in the Tennessee Basin region, the contaminant in question is mercury. The following areas are under advisory:

Bear Creek at County Road 53, river mile 95.7; advisory: channel catfish, one meal per month, and largemouth bass, two meals per month.

Bear Creek Reservoir in the dam forebay area, mile 75; advisory: largemouth bass, do not consume.

Cedar Creek Reservoir in the dam forebay area to 1 mile upstream; advisory: channel catfish, two meals per month, and largemouth bass, two meals per month.

Little Bear Creek Reservoir in the dam forebay area, mile 12.5; advisory: largemouth bass, do not eat.

The advisory booklet “was developed to inform people who eat Alabama fish as to which species of fish in which waterbodies may present an elevated health hazard,” the booklet explains.

The entire advisory document is available online at

http://www.alabamapublichealth.gov/tox/fish-advisories.html.