A 1988 survey, funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and conducted by the American Fisheries Society, identified the need for standardizing the approaches to evaluating risks and developing fish consumption advisories that are comparable across different jurisdictions. Four major components were identified as critical to the development of a consistent risk-based approach: standardized practices for sampling and analyzing fish, standardized risk assessment methods, standardized procedures for making risk management decisions, and standardized approaches for communicating risk to the general public. To address concerns raised by the survey respondents, EPA began developing a series of four documents designed to provide guidance to state, local, regional, and tribal environmental health officials responsible for designing contaminant monitoring programs and issuing fish and shellfish consumption advisories. It is essential that all four documents be used together, since no single volume addresses all of the topics involved in the development of fish consumption advisories. The documents are meant to provide guidance only and do not constitute a regulatory requirement.

"November 2000." Includes bibliographical references.