Short Chain Chlorinated Paraffins in Mollusks from Coastal Waters in the Chinese Bohai Sea

Abstract

As an extremely complex group of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) candidates in the Stockholm Convention, short chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs) have been of extensive concern in recent years. In this study, nine bivalve and two gastropod species were collected in 2009 to evaluate the spatial distributions and potential factors influencing the bioaccumulation of SCCPs in mollusks in the Chinese Bohai Sea. The concentrations of ∑ SCCPs in the mollusks were in the range 64.9-5510 ng/g (dry weight) with an average chlorine content of 61.1%. C(10) and C(11) were the predominant homologue groups of SCCPs, which accounted for about 29.7% and 34.9% of ∑ SCCPs, respectively. Six and seven chlorinated substituents were the main congener groups. Mya arenaria (Mya), Mactra veneriformis (Mac), and Crassostrea talienwhanensis (Oyster, Ost) had higher average concentrations of SCCPs than other species, implying that these bivalves could be used as sentinels to indicate SCCPs contamination in this coastal region. A significant positive linear relationship was found between SCCP concentrations and lipid content of the mollusks, whereas the lipid-normalized SCCP concentrations were negatively linear-related to the trophic levels (TL), which implied that SCCPs did not show biomagnification in mollusks in this region.