Concentrations of halogenated natural products versus PCB 153 in bivalves from the North and Baltic Seas

Abstract

Different halogenated natural products (HNPs) have been reported to occur in marine wildlife, particularly from regions with comparably little contamination with anthropogenic pollutants. The North Sea and the Baltic Sea have been known as a marine site heavily polluted with organohalogen compounds, and especially with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). In this study we wished to determine the current abundance of HNPs in comparison with 2,2′,4,4′,5,5′-hexachlorobiphenyl (PCB 153), i.e. the major PCB congener in marine biota. For this purpose, forty blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) and oysters (Crassostrea gigas) from seven sites were analyzed on HNPs and PCB 153. Most of the samples contained HNPs in the form of polyhalogenated 1′-methyl-1,2′-bipyrroles (PMBPs including Q1) and the mixed halogenated compound MHC-1. In addition we determined several polyhalogenated 1,1′-dimethyl-2,2′-bipyrroles (PDBPs), 2,3,4,5-tetrabromo-N-methylpyrrole and several novel homologs, as well as polybrominated N-methylindoles. The occurrence of these HNP groups were considerably different in the samples from different regions with varying sum concentrations up to 1930μg/kg lipids in blue mussels from Heligoland (North Sea) and much lower concentrations in samples from the Baltic Sea (up to 13μg/kg lipids). The concentrations of HNPs varied by two orders of magnitude, compared to a factor of 10 for PCB 153, suggesting that HNPs are more spatially (and perhaps temporally) variant than POPs. In the North Sea region Heligoland, HNPs were more abundant than PCB 153.