Persistent Organic Pollutants In Fish From Quanzhou Bay: Their Levels And Risk Assessment Of Edible Safety

In recent years, with the development of economy and the growth of population near thecoast of Quanzhou Bay, pollution is becoming more and more serious in this area. Especially thepollution caused by persistent organic pollutants (POPs) should not be ignored, because thesepollutants are not only harmful to the environment, but also consequently to human health. Atpresent, there are a lot of studies on POPs in water and sediment from Quanzhou Bay, but only afew in biota. Fish is one of the most important daily diet on the table of native, therefore, it isnecessary and significantly meaningful to study the levels of POPs in fish, and to search sourcesof POPs and find the way of accumulation along the food chain, in order to objectively assesshuman health risk which caused by these pollutants.Concentrations of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) andpolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in ten species of fish in Quanzhou Bay, weremeasured in2013. And the potential carcinogenic risk by exposing these POPs were preliminaryassessed. Suggestions were provided on human dietetic intake of the fish. In addition, we alsomeasured three typical kinds of POPs, which contained in liver of five species fish and sex glandfrom Johnius grypotus, to compare with the POPs in these fish muscle.The range of total concentration of OCPs, PCBs and PAHs in ten species fish was11.20-74.51ng/g,4.48-20.44ng/g and1.57-9.77ng/g wet weight. The highest concentration oftotal OCPs and PCBs was in Konosirus punctatus, and the lowest was fund in Muraenesoxcinereus. But the highest concentration of total PAHs was found in Argyrosomus argentatus, thelowest in Harpodon nehereus. The result showed that different specise of fish had differentability to accumulate different POPs. It might be related to their body fat percentage, livinghabits and metabolic characteristics. Compared with related research in China and abroad, theconcentration of PCBs in fish from Quanzhou Bay was generally higher than the other regions,meanwhile, residues of OCPs belonged to the medium level, but PAHs was generally lower thanthe other areas.The compositions and sources of OCPs, PCBs and PAHs in fish had also been discussed.The main results were as follows:The DDTs were the main pollutants of OCPs in fish. DDTs were about90.31-96.76%of thetotal OCPs, while DDD and DDE had a large ratio in DDTs. The compositions of DDTs revealedthat the main source of DDTs was due to the input years ago, not in recent years. PCB77,PCB153and PCB138were the main PCBs in fish. The main congeners of PCBs were hexachlorobenzene and four chlorinated congeners, which might be related with the commercialuse of PCBs in the past years. As for PAHs, fishes from Quanzhou Bay were mainly polluted byacenaphthene, fluorene, phenanthrene, fluoranthene and pyrene. These PAHs were always withlow molecular weight, like bicyclic, tricyclic and tetracyclic PAHs. Ratio method, showed thatthe PAHs in the fish from Quanzhou Bay were mainly from the burning of fossil oil.Concentrations of POPs in fish muscle, liver and gonad were compared. The results showedthat: there was a high degree of POPs consistency in fish muscle and liver, and the concentrationof POPs in liver was higher than muscle. This indicated that POPs were easier to accumulate inliver and other organs with more fat.The residues of OCPs and PCBs contained in fish were lower than the national standards byassessing risk of edible safety in this study. Dioxin-like PCBs toxicity evaluation results showedthat the TEQ of dioxin-like PCBs in ten species of fish were lower than the standards of WHOand the European Commission. The risk assessment results showed that carcinogenic risk fromexposure to OCPs in Platycephalus indicus, Sardinella aurita, Harpodon nehereus andMuraenesox cinereus could be accepted. But still there was a potential carcinogenic risk fromexposure to PCBs when eating fish from Quanzhou bay. The risk of cancer was acceptable withthe exposure to PAHs. Based on the concentration of OCPs, the maximum allowable number ofmeals of Platycephalus indicus, Sardinella aurita, Harpodon nehereus and Muraenesox cinereuswas beyond16every month，so it was safe to eat them. The pollution of OCPs in Lizacarinatusand Konosirus punctatus were a little bit serious, so it was better to eat them less than4mealsevery month. Based on the concentration of PCBs, Harpodon nehereus and Muraenesoxcinereus’s consumption were higher as78.06g and70.25g per day, and9-10meals per month.While the daily maximum consumption of Lizacarinatus and Konosirus punctatus was only17.13g and18.15g, and the maximum permitted number of meals should be controlled under2-3per month. Based on the pollution of PAHs, the daily consumption of fish was far more thanthe estimated100g, and the maximum permitted number of meals was higher than16. It meantthat there was a little chance of exposure to PAHs when consuming fish. In conclusion, wesuggested that the residents in Quanzhou Bay should control the consumption of fish reasonably,especially the consumption of Lizacarinatus and Konosirus punctatus.