Dow Wild Game Study: Squirrel data

Tittabawassee River Watch www.trwnews.net

Dow Wild Game Study: Squirrel

Click here for official Final report: MDCH Dioxins in Wild Game Taken from the Tittabawassee River Floodplain South of Midland, Midland and Saginaw Counties, Michigan EPA ID# MID980994354 Final Report April 29, 2005. Report is officially peer reviewed and backed by the Federal Government ATSDR.

Click here for official State of Michigan T.River Flood Plain Wild Game Consumption Advisory

EPA indicates there is much more in the Tittabawassee River than contaminated fish and dioxin, click here

EPA July 2004 Memo concerning Dow Wild Game Study

	Potential health risks to persons consuming game.
	Dioxin contamination of game indicate contamination of the terrestrial food chain
	Unacceptable, serious aquatic ecological risks to fish, fish eating birds, and mammals.
	There is particular concern regarding distortions of risk information which are causing inaccurate risk messages to the public.
	Click here to read the EPA 7/30/04 memo

Click here to view raw data used to make the following charts

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Note: in the 'Radar" graph below, each circle gridline represents a threshold that is
at least 10 times the level of the adjacent circle inside it (logarithmic scale).
Example: a sample plotted between the 10 and 100 grid rings represent values that are
at least 10 to 99 times the value of samples between the 1 and 10 rings and 100 to 999 times
the value of samples between the 0.1 and 1 rings. Lines connect all the values in a series.
The individual data points represent sample TEQ values from the chart that follows.

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Squirrel Raw Data

Squirrel	Area	TEQ (pg/g)	Percent	(kg)
		Wet Wt.	Lipids	Body Wt.	Age	Sex


TR01SL01M1	Ref area	0.061	3.3	0.794	IMMATURE	FEMALE
TR01SL02M1	Ref area	0.105	3.5	0.794	IMMATURE	MALE
TR01SL03M1	Ref area	0.04	4.07	0.539	IMMATURE	MALE
TR01SL04M1	Ref area	0.072	2.5	0.765	IMMATURE	FEMALE
TR01SL05M1	Ref area	0.076	5	0.992	SPRING BORN	MALE
TR01SL06M1	Ref area	0.057	3	0.936	IMMATURE	FEMALE
TR01SL07M1	Ref area	0.047	2.9	0.765	IMMATURE	FEMALE
TR01SL08M1	Ref area	0.107	3.1	0.794	ND	ND
TR01SL09M1	Ref area	0.086	5.4	0.879	IMMATURE	FEMALE
TR01SL10M1	Ref area	0.072	2	0.85	IMMATURE	FEMALE
TR01SL11M1	Ref area	0.06	3.4	0.992	SUMMERBORN	MALE
TR01SL12M1	Ref area			0.964	SPRING BORN	MALE


TR02SL01M1	Smith Crossing	0.092	6.07	0.822	IMMATURE	FEMALE
TR02SL02M1	Smith Crossing	0.107	8.5	0.992	IMMATURE	FEMALE
TR02SL03M1	Smith Crossing	0.25	3.1	0.595	SUBADULT	FEMALE
TR02SL04M1	Smith Crossing	0.127	3.3	0.879	IMMATURE	MALE
TR02SL05M1	Smith Crossing	0.205	6.9	1.134	IMMATURE	MALE
TR02SL06M1	Smith Crossing	0.503	5.3	0.879	SPRINGBORN	MALE
TR02SL07M1	Smith Crossing	0.664	1.2	0.964	IMMATURE	FEMALE
TR02SL08M1	Smith Crossing	0.375	4.5	1.191	IMMATURE	FEMALE
TR02SL09M1	Smith Crossing	0.226	5.7	0.765	IMMATURE	FEMALE
TR02SL10M1	Smith Crossing	1.48	7.1	0.765	SUBADULT	FEMALE


TR03SL01M1	Imerman Park	2.72	5.7	0.652	IMMATURE	FEMALE
TR03SL02M1	Imerman Park	4.29	6.7	0.936	MATURE	MALE
TR03SL03M1	Imerman Park	0.654	3.3	0.482	IMMATURE	MALE
TR03SL04M1	Imerman Park	0.687	4.5	0.765	ADULT	MALE
TR03SL05M1	Imerman Park	0.197	2.9	0.624	IMMATURE	FEMALE
TR03SL06M1	Imerman Park	0.162	2.9	0.539	IMMATURE	FEMALE
TR03SL07M1	Imerman Park	0.722	5.3	0.539	IMMATURE	MALE
TR03SL08M1	Imerman Park	0.083	2	0.765	EARLY SUMMER	MALE
TR03SL09M1	Imerman Park	3.57	3.5	0.822	IMMATURE	FEMALE
TR03SL10M1	Imerman Park	0.141	4.2	0.482	IMMATURE	FEMALE

GES memo (7/16/04) to the MDEQ indicates the results of the Dow/Entrix Wild Game study in the Tittabawassee River Flood plain confirms findings of MDEQ/GES 2003 T.River Aquatic Ecological Risk Assesement. Conclusions:

Review of the Entrix (2004) report has shown that the data contained therein support one of the major conclusions of the Michigan DEQ terrestrial ecological risk assessment (GES, 2004), that is that biota and food chains on the Tittabawassee River downriver of Midland are contaminated by PCDDs and PCDFs. A reasonable conclusion from this is that predators and scavengers at the tops of these food chains are likely to be even more exposed to these contaminants than the deer, squirrels, and turkeys sampled in the Entrix (2004) study.

However, the Entrix (2004) study was designed to generate data for an evaluation of risk to human health, rather than to ecological receptors. Because of this, design elements in the Entrix (2004) study, though perhaps appropriate for a human health risk analysis, result in an underestimation of the contaminant concentrations to which wildlife would be exposed and, hence, the magnitude of the risks incurred. These design elements comprise:

	The sampling was confined to organisms which, because of their diets, are unlikely to bioaccumulate PCDDs and PCDFs to the extent that other organisms would.
	The carcass handling procedures resulted in a likely underestimation of the magnitudes of the PCDD/PCDF whole-body burdens to which predators and scavengers may be exposed.
	The sample spatial distribution almost certainly results in an underestimation of the PCDD/PCDF body burdens of turkeys in the lower sections of the floodplain, and, hence, in the potential exposures to their predators and scavengers.

Click here to read the entire July 2004 memo

Tittabawassee River Aquatic Ecological Risk Assessment Slide Show

Tittabawassee River Aquatic Ecological Risk Assesement Final Report (pdf)

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