Estimating Subsistence Ingestion Rates of Moose and Caribou in a Remote Village in Alaska. A. L. Veilleux, T. J. Garlock, and P. D. Birkner, Shannon & Wilson, Inc. 400 North 34th Street, Suite 100, Seattle, WA 98103
A subsistence-hunting scenario was evaluated as part of a baseline human health risk assessment at a military installation in a remote area of Alaska. This evaluation was needed to determine whether ingestion of game species posed a potential threat to subsistence hunters from a nearby village. Use of national, state, or even regional information on subsistence would have underestimated the game ingestion rate in this village and consequently underestimated the risks posed by subsistence hunting near the site. Therefore, village-specific information on subsistence was gathered. Game species to be modeled (moose and caribou) were selected based on exposure surveys and discussions with the residents of the village, the literature on subsistence practices in the region, and current site conditions. The chemical intake equation for the game species included consideration of their home range and migration patterns. Site-specific values were derived for the villagers’ game ingestion rate based on local harvest rates for moose and caribou and on 1990 census data.
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