Egeland G M, Ponce R A, Middaugh J P
Section of Epidemiology, Alaska Division of Public Health, Anchorage, USA.
Int J Circumpolar Health. 1998;57 Suppl 1:572-5.
Persistent organic compounds and trace metals are found in the arctic food chain, generating concerns about the safety of subsistence food consumption. One approach for evaluating subsistence food safety is a process used extensively in regulating environmental clean-up and pollution standards. This process, regulatory risk assessment, is substantially different from approaches used in public health risk assessment. Limitations to the use of regulatory risk assessment in assessing public health threats from environmental exposures in the diet include a narrow scope, a lack of incorporation of the nutritional and health benefits of subsistence foods, and the overestimation of risks because of the incorporation of worst-case assumptions in the absence of scientific information. Sound public health policy recognizes that attempts to err on the side of safety for one exposure by recommending reduced consumption of a selected food may inadvertently err on the side of harm by reducing a coexisting exposure of potentially great health benefit. The following discussion should serve as a useful background for future multidisciplinary discussions on the safety of subsistence foods in the Arctic.
持久性有机化合物和痕量金属存在于北极食物链中，这引发了人们对食用自给性食物安全性的担忧。评估自给性食物安全性的一种方法是一种在环境清理和污染标准监管中广泛使用的过程。这个过程，即监管风险评估，与公共卫生风险评估中使用的方法有很大不同。在评估饮食中环境暴露对公共卫生威胁时使用监管风险评估的局限性包括范围狭窄、未纳入自给性食物的营养和健康益处，以及在缺乏科学信息的情况下由于纳入最坏情况假设而高估风险。合理的公共卫生政策认识到，通过建议减少特定食物的消费来偏向于一种暴露的安全做法，可能会因减少同时存在的具有潜在巨大健康益处的暴露而无意中偏向于危害。以下讨论应为未来关于北极自给性食物安全性的多学科讨论提供有用的背景。
