The need for strategic environmental assessment of fishery products regulations in the Taiwan strait: Taking health perspectives of organochlorine pesticides in seafood as an example

This article proposes an integrated Health Impact Assessment/Strategic Environmental Assessment (HIA/SEA) framework that can be applied to fishery products regulations in Taiwan Strait. In recent years, many studies with regards to organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), especially DDT and its derivatives, in Taiwan's environment and aquatic biota indicated that DDT, DDD, and DDE in seafood, especially oysters, in the Kinmen, Manchu area near China's Fu-Tzien Province, had relatively high concentrations. It was discussed that this may be caused by distribution of OCPs in China's vicinity. In this study, the concentration of DDT, DDD, and DDE reported by many researchers in the last two decades were compared and analyzed. The concentrations of these three chemicals were found to be as high as hundreds of ng/g-dw in seafood produced in Kimmen and Machu near China, whereas those for seafood caught in Taiwan's coastal areas were not significant. The need for trade agreements or regulations on fishery was then discussed. According to the viewpoints of health and environmental sustainability, HIA methodologies were incorporated in the SEA to help identify and analyze the potential impacts on human health caused by OCPs in seafood consumed in Taiwan, which may be caused by the lack of trade regulation mechanisms between Taiwan and China. The integrated HIA-SEA framework for fishery trade agreements or regulations in Taiwan was thus proposed and the procedures were discussed. It is anticipated that the health of Taiwan's residents can be protected through implementing this and the human health perspective can be emphasized in the HIA-SEA procedures.