Synthetic Musks in Bioindicators: Monitoring Data of Fish and Human Milk Samples from the Czech Republic

Abstract

Until the middle of the 1990s, no attention was paid to the pollution of the environment in Czech Republic by synthetic musk fragrances and to the exposure of Czech population to these xenobiotics. However, in response to increasing information on high levels of synthetic musks in freshwater ecosystem reported by many industrial countries in the last decade, extensive monitoring study was conducted in Czech Republic in the years 1997–2000. More than 800 samples were collected at 11 sampling sites and examined for the presence of both polycyclic and nitro musk compounds. Their occurrence in various fish employed as bioindicator of river pollution as well as investigation of human milk documented omnipresent character of these widely used synthetic chemicals. High levels of synthetic musks were typically found downstream large urban areas. The relative concentrations in almost all analysed fish samples (perch, bream, chub, barbel and trout) decreased in following order: HHCB>AHTN≫MX≥MK≈AHDI>ATII≈ADBI. Polycyclic musks represented mainly by HHCB and AHTN accounted typically for more than 80% of total musk content; nevertheless, the bioaccumulation phenomena are distinctly species-dependent. Besides fish, application of semipermeable membrane device (SPMD) was shown to be a conceivable tool for the integral monitoring of the presence of musk containing sewage water in aquatic ecosystems. As fish represents a minor component of the Czech food basket, general occurrence of both groups of synthetic musk compounds in milk samples collected from 59 nursing mothers documented the significance of non-dietary routes of human exposure. The levels as well as relative abundance of synthetic musks varied in a wide range with polycyclic compounds prevailing in most of samples. Critical assessment of our results together with their comparison with data generated abroad in similar studies is presented in this chapter.