Chlorinated aromatic hydrocarbons in the brains and lipids of sparrows (Passer domesticus and Passer montanus) from rural and suburban areas near Warsaw.

Abstract

A detailed history of the use of aromatic hydrocarbons in Poland is given in our earlierpaper (Niewiadowska et al. 1998). DDT had been withdrawn from use in the country by1975. In turn, however, limitations and then a ban on the use of Lindane ( γ -HCH) wereonly introduced in the period 1980-1989 (Ludwicki and Goralczyk 1994). In Poland,concentrations of DDT and its derivatives in animal tissues have declined 10-20 foldsince 1975 (Niewiadowska 1996, Niewiadowska et al. 1996), but are still widely presentin the tissues of livestock and wild animals, as well as in human fat and milk (Falandysz1994, Karolewski et al. 1991, Pinowski et al. 1995, Niewiadowska and Zmudzki 1996). Itis not known what amounts of PCBs are brought into or produced within the country(Falandysz et al. 1992), but their concentrations in animal tissues and products in Polandare generally low and declining steadily (Niewiadowska et al. 1995).The aim of the work described here was thus to study the contamination withorganochlorine pesticides and PCBs of House Sparrows (Passer domesticus) and TreeSparrows (P. montanus), as indicators of contamination by these xenobiotic compoundsin rural and suburban areas near Warsaw. A further aim was to verify earlier results(Niewiadowska et al. 1998) suggesting that concentrations of PCBs in the sparrows in theperiod 1994-1996 were only one-hundredth of those noted in the years 1988-1989.MATERIALS AND METHODSWork was done in 1994, 1995 and 1996, near Warsaw (52°22'N, 20°52'E), in a rural area(Kepa Kielpinska, KK, and Kielpin, KL) and a suburban area (Dziekanow Lesny, DzL).DzL is a typical suburban area of Warsaw with residential (single-family) premisesproviding services and workshops, while the rural areas (KK and KL) are characterisedby the presence of small farms among fields, though in KL these border onto a typicalsuburban area. The fields in the rural area include many rows of pollarded willows (Salixsp.). Between the 1950s and 1975, the whole study area was treated with DDT in aneffort to combat the Colorado beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata). This was also true ofDzL, which was still a small village surrounded by potato fields in that period. In the1980s, the areas remaining rural (KK, KL) that were treated with organochlorinepesticides were mainly given Lindane in the forms Gammatox and Gammakarbotox. Adetailed description of the study area is given in Pinowski (1967, 1968) and Pinowski etal. (1995).The detailed subjects of investigation were the contents of organochlorine pesticides andpolychlorinated biphenyls in lipid fractions extracted using Soxhlet’s Method from thewhole bodies of sparrows (expressed as ppm. lipid basis) and from their brains(expressed as ppm. fresh weight).The sparrows were mist-netted in autumn and winter 1994, 1995 and 1996 and were thus