Chattanooga Catfish Warning

This picture was taken (October 2019) by a colleague, and new Gender and Radiation Impact Project Board Member, Dave Lochbaum in the parking lot just below the Chickamauga Dam, in Chattanooga, TN.

Dave sent this story in an email:

Riverwalk is a walking and bicycle path from the dam to downtown and beyond. At several places along Riverwalk are fishing piers and most days all the piers have at least one person angling for fish.

Imagine a fairly typical family of husband, wife, daughter, and son visiting this area for recreation and fishing; the couple is expecting their third child. Per the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, the wife and children should refrain from consuming any catfish caught by the family. The husband should confine his catfish dining to one meal per month.

The potential harm is not from allergies to catfish, but from toxic chemicals (mostly mercury) that the catfish ingest from bottom feeding. Among the sources of mercury in the Tennessee River is a place called Oak Ridge a few miles upriver. 

Per the NRC, the wife, children, and husband can all be exposed to the same levels of radiation without apparent increase in risk of cancer or other serious illness. I'm not a medical doctor, but I cannot fathom why the expectant wife and her children need greater protection from catfish than the husband, but the entire family can be protected equally from radiation. It would seem that the physical processes that make pregnant women and children more vulnerable to catfish would also make them more vulnerable to radiation. 

What if one irradiates the catfish? Would the expectant wife and her children then warrant greater protection against the hot catfish? 

Dave Lochbaum served as the Director of the Nuclear Safety Program at Union of Concerned Scientists, and before that at a number of nuclear power reactors during his career in the nuclear industry. We are excited to welcome his experience and perspective to GRIP.