Recreation and risk: potential exposure.

Abstract

The Department of Energy and other federal facilities are reclaiming land through the process of remediation and restoration, and this land will eventually be turned over for future land uses that may involve recreation. Understanding the amount of recreation that is likely (and thus individual exposure) is an essential element in decisions about cleanup standards. In this article the number of days people engage in different recreational activities as a measure of potential exposure is examined. People attending a Mayfest celebration (n = 399) and the Palmetto Sportsmen's Classic (n = 285) in Columbia, SC, were interviewed regarding their recreational activities. In most cases reported in the literature, recreational activities are examined as the mean number of days people engage in each activity per year, but to determine risk it is essential to know the distribution of these activities. In descending order of frequency, people attending the Mayfest reported their activities as birdwatching, photographing, fishing, hiking, camping, and hunting. There were significant gender differences in the frequency of activities, with men spending more days in every activity except birdwatching and photography. There were ethnic differences in recreation, with whites engaging in higher levels of most recreational activities than blacks, but the percentage of black men who reported fishing more than 100 d per year was greater than for white men. Most people reported their participation in most activities less than 30 d per year; however, a higher percentage of people reported participating in photography, birdwatching, and fishing more than 30 d per year compared to the other activities. Further, individuals at the Sportsman's Classic reported far higher rates of hunting and fishing per year than the general public. These data can be used to examine potential exposure of recreationists on remediated and restored land. The data clearly indicate that over 25% of the people engage in at least one recreational activity over 20 d per year, and thus exceed the Department of Energy's 14-d recreation assumption in its future land use document.