Abstract
Levels of organochlorine (OC) and organophosphorus (OP) pesticide residues in fish, sediments and water and their health risk associated with the consumption of the fish from the Tono Reservoir, Ghana were evaluated. The analytical methods included solvent extraction of the pesticide residues using ultrasound sonication and soxhlet extraction and their subsequent quantification using GC equipped with electron capture detector and pulse flame photometric detector after clean-up on activated silica gel/anhydrous sodium sulphate. A total of 29 pesticides comprising 16 OCs and 13 OPs were analyzed, out of which aldrin, p,p′-DDE and p,p′-DDD were detected in fish and sediment samples. The results showed that all the residues in water had their concentrations below the detection limit. Mean concentrations of organochlorine pesticide (OCP) residues in fish ranged from 0.017 to 0.17, 0.043 to 0.30, 0.027 to 0.243 and 0.097 to 0.263 µg/g in Sarotherodon galilaeus, Clarias anguillaris, Schilbe intermedius and Marcusenius senegalensis respectively. Mean concentrations of organophosphates pesticides ranged from 0.080 to 0.090, 0.080 to 0.087 and 0.050 to 0.063 µg/g in C. anguillaris, S. intermedius and M. senegalensis respectively. The level of chlorpyrifos in S. galilaeus was 0.160 µg/g. Mean concentrations of OCP residue in sediments ranged from 0.047 to 0.090 µg/g. Aldrin recorded the highest level while p,p′-DDD recorded the lowest level. The mean concentrations for all the detected residues were below the WHO/FAO maximum residue limits. Health risk estimation revealed that aldrin in M. senegalensis had great potential for systemic toxicity to consumers.
Highlights
Reduction of the proliferation of pest and increase in food production, has made pesticides application in agriculture inevitable (Akoto et al 2013)
The mean concentration of the organochlorine pesticide (OCP) detected in S. galilaeus samples were 0.017 ± 0.012, 0.170 ± 0.001 and 0.083 ± 0.085 μg/g for aldrin, p,p′-DDDE and p,p′DDD, respectively. p,p′-DDE which recorded the highest mean concentration in S. galilaeus was detected in two samples
The least mean concentration in this species was recorded by aldrin which was detected in 30 % of the samples
Summary
Reduction of the proliferation of pest and increase in food production, has made pesticides application in agriculture inevitable (Akoto et al 2013). Pesticides constitute one of the most hazardous groups of contaminants (Vega et al 2005), posing potential risk to humans and other life forms (Jeyakumar et al 2014). The occurrence of pesticides residue, especially organochlorines (OCs) in the environment is a great worry due to their tendency for long-range transport. Their capacity to bioaccumulate in food chain poses a threat to human health and the environment. Accumulation of pesticides in these organisms has become a serious public health issue worldwide. Fish are used extensively for environmental monitoring because they concentrate pollutants directly from water and diet, enabling the assessment of transfer of pollutants through the food web (Bruggeman 1982; Fisk et al 1998; Lanfranchi et al 2006; Das et al 2002)
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