Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and their congener-specific accumulation in edible fish from the Gulf of Gdańsk, Baltic Sea

Abstract

Concentrations and composition profiles of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were investigated in composite samples of 10 species of edible fish from the Gulf of Gdańsk, in the southern part of the Baltic Sea, Poland, to understand the status of contamination and possible human exposure risk. Apart from the total PCBs, planar non-ortho (IUPAC nos 77, 126, 169) and mono-ortho (nos 105, 114, 118, 123, 156, 157, 167, 189) chlorobiphenyls were also quantified and their dioxin-like toxicity assessed. The absolute total PCB concentrations in fish ranged from 43 to 490 ng g-1 wet wt (910–11000 ng g-1 lipids), while of TCDD TEQs of planar members were from 0.15 to 3.1 pg g-1 wet wt (8.1–81 pg g-1 lipids). The penta- and hexa-CBs usually comprised 70–80% of the total PCBs and were followed by hepta-, tetra- and tri-CBs, and for a specific site tri- and tetra-CBs comprised as much as 22%. Among the individual CB congeners, nos 118, 153 (+132) and 138 (+160 +163 +164) were the most abundant, while no. 110 comprised between 6.8 and 9.3% of the total PCBs in some species. Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to examine the interdependences among CB congeners in the factor space. The PCA model and cluster analyses were further used to examine site- and species-specific differences and similarities of PCB composition, and the results are discussed. An assessed daily intake rate of TCDD TEQ of planar PCBs with the fishmeal of the Gulf of Gdańsk in the 1990s was between 78 and 96 pg per capita or between 1.3 and 1.6 pg kg-1 body weight.