HEALTH CONSULTATION
LAKE MEAD NATIONAL RECREATIONAL AREA
OVERTON, CLARK COUNTY, NEVADA
BACKGROUND AND STATEMENT OF ISSUES
Officials from the Lake Mead National Recreational Area, National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, asked the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) to review contaminant levels detected in fish from Las Vegas Bay and determine if the levels pose a public health hazard.
In two earlier health consultations, ATSDR assessed the public health impact of fish contamination data provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-Region 9 (EPA-9) laboratory [1,2]. Because of concern over Quality Assurance/Quality Control findings, the EPA-9 submitted several duplicate fish samples to two independent laboratories for confirmatory analyses. The EPA-Region 10 (EPA-10) laboratory analyzed 10 fish samples and a private laboratory, Agriculture & Priority Pollutants Laboratories, Inc. (APPL), analyzed 8 fish samples for organochlorine pesticides and/or polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). ATSDR was asked to review the results of these additional analyses and determine whether they affected our previous conclusions and recommendations.
In ATSDR's previous health consultations, we identified DDE, endrin, and PCBs as the contaminants that posed the greatest health hazard. Therefore, our review of the new data will focus on these contaminants.
