Butyltin and phenyltin compounds in some marine fishery products on the Japanese market.

Abstract

The degree of butyltin and phenyltin contamination was determined in samples of 11 species of fish products that were representative of the Japanese fish market. We observed high contamination levels of these organotin compounds in cultured marine products. Mean butyltin contamination of natural (nonfarmed) marine products, however, were relatively low, compared with the cultured products. Phenyltin concentrations in the described samples were generally much lower than levels of butyltin compounds. Levels of organotin compounds in these marine products have decreased drastically as a result of legal controls instituted by the Japanese government in 1990. On the basis of calculated tolerable daily intake levels of tributyltin and triphenyltin, we concluded that the levels of organotin compounds in the marine products on the Japanese market were not sufficiently high to have any effect on human health. However, we also determined that some of the cultured marine products were contaminated with undesirable levels of tributyltin.