The Risks Associated with Great Lakes Contaminants

Are the fish we catch safe to eat? That question has been asked many times, but the large and usually unquantified uncertainty inherent in current estimates of risk make it a difficult question to answer. Without more data on the uncertainty, about the best that can be done at this time is to understand the risk assessment process. For example, in almost all risk assessments of toxic substances, conservative (upper bound) estimates are made rather than the "average" risks an individual faces. Risk estimates of environmental toxic compounds made in this way are really "proxy" values, and are most useful for comparing risks that were estimated in the same way.