Tissue distribution of triphenyltin compounds in marine teleost fishes.

Continuous release of the highly toxic triphenyltin compounds (TPT) from antifouling paints and fungicides has caused serious pollution to urbanized coastal marine environments worldwide since the 1960s. Using gas-chromatography mass-spectrometry (GC-MS), this study investigated the distribution profile of TPT in 15 types of tissues of four marine teleost fish species collected from Hong Kong waters. Concentrations of TPT in various tissues had a significant positive correlation with protein contents in the tissues (r = 0.346, p < 0.001) and, to a lesser extent with lipid contents (r = 0.169, p = 0.020). Highest concentrations of TPT were consistently found in liver, ranging from 1074.9 to 3443.7 ng/g wet weight; whereas fish scales always contained the least concentration of TPT in all species, ranging from 10.4 to 48.5 ng/g wet weight. Through mass balance models and regression analyses, muscle tissues were found to contribute most to the total TPT body burden, and the average TPT concentration of both dorsal and ventral muscles was identified as the best predictor for estimating TPT burden in the entire fish. Hence, further investigations of bioaccumulation and biomagnification of TPT in fishes should adopt this modelling approach in estimating its total body burden in individual fish.

Body burdens of polybrominated diphenyl ethers in childbearing-aged women at an intensive electronic-waste recycling site in China.

BACKGROUND, AIM AND SCOPE: This study is the first to investigate PBDE body burden with regard to the concurrent analyses of multiple human matrices, namely milk, placenta, and hair, collected from a group of childbearing-aged women at an electronic waste (e-waste) recycling site to determine the partitioning of PBDEs in these different human matrices and the possible health risks imposed to infants at the e-waste recycling site. METHODS AND METHODS: Five sets of milk, placenta, and hair samples were collected from an e-waste site (Taizhou, Zhejiang Province) and a reference site (Lin'an city, Zhejiang Province; 245 km away from Taizhou) in China. The concentrations of total PBDEs in different human tissues were analyzed according to US EPA standard methods. RESULTS: PBDE body burdens of women from the e-waste site (milk 117 +/- 191, 8.89-457 ng/g fat, placenta 19.5 +/- 29.9, 1.28-72.1 ng/g fat, hair 110 +/- 210, 8.47-486 ng/g dry wt.) showed significantly higher levels than those from the reference site (milk 2.06 +/- 0.94, 1.0-3.56 ng/g fat, placenta 1.02 +/- 0.36, 0.59-1.42 ng/g fat, hair 3.57 +/- 2.03, 1.56-5.61 ng/g dry wt.) and were higher than those reported in other studies, due to e-waste recycling operations, especially open burning. On a dry-weight basis, the following trend was found for PBDE among the samples from Taizhou: hair>>milk>placenta. Among the donors, the body burden of an e-waste worker ranked second. Higher brominated BDEs (hepta-BDEs) contributed a significantly greater proportion to total PBDEs in hair of the Taizhou women (20%) than that in milk (2.9%) and in placenta (2.6%). The estimated intake of PBDEs of 6-month-old breastfed infants living at the e-waste site was 572 +/- 839 ng/kg body wt/day, which was 57 times higher than that of infants from the reference site (10.1 +/- 4.60 ng/kg body wt/day). Moreover, the maximum calculated value (2,240 ng/kg body wt/day) exceeded the chronic oral reference dose for penta-BDE (2,000 ng/kg/day) of US EPA. DISCUSSION: BDE-47 was the dominant congener accounting for 20-30% in all the individual samples, while higher-brominated congeners, for example, BDE-183 and BDE-190, contributed between 2% and 20%. The presence of hepta-BDE congeners (BDE-181, BDE-190) in hair of the women in Taizhou suggest that thermal degradation of Deca-BDE from the open burning of e-waste may have been their source because these congeners are not found in either Penta-BDE or Octa-BDE technical products. Of the three types of samples analyzed, it was also suspected that hair may be more favorable to higher-brominated compounds which might explain why the hair samples contained the highest total PBDE concentrations and the highest proportion of higher-brominated BDEs (hepta-BDEs). CONCLUSION: This study provides evidence that primitive e-waste recycling in China leads to high PBDE body burdens in local residents and can potentially threaten the health of infants. RECOMMENDATIONS AND PERSPECTIVES: Control measures should be imposed to minimize the level of pollutants resulting from e-waste processing operations to the environment and to humans. In-depth investigations on epidemiological studies of health impacts caused by e-waste recycling operations should be conducted. It is recommended that further measurements of PBDE levels in local food (e.g., fish, shellfish, dairy products, meat, fruits, and vegetables), dust, air, water, and human specimens be collected from a larger sample size at the e-waste processing site for the determination of human exposure pathways to PBDEs.

Body loadings and health risk assessment of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans at an intensive electronic waste recycling site in China.

This study is one of the very few investigating the dioxin body burden of a group of child-bearing-aged women at an electronic waste (e-waste) recycling site (Taizhou, Zhejiang Province) (24 +/- 2.83 years of age, 40% were primiparae) and a reference site (Lin'an city, Zhejiang Province, about 245 km away from Taizhou) (24 +/- 2.35 years of age, 100% were primiparae) in China. Five sets of samples (each set consisted of human milk, placenta, and hair) were collected from each site. Body burdens of people from the e-waste processing site (human milk, 21.02 +/- 13.81 pg WHO-TEQ1998/g fat (World Health Organization toxic equivalency 1998); placenta, 31.15 +/- 15.67 pg WHO-TEQ1998/g fat; hair, 33.82 +/- 17.74 pg WHO-TEQ1998/g dry wt) showed significantly higher levels of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDD/ Fs) than those from the reference site (human milk, 9.35 +/- 7.39 pg WHO-TEQ1998/g fat; placenta, 11.91 +/- 7.05 pg WHO-TEQ1998/g fat; hair, 5.59 +/- 4.36 pg WHO-TEQ1998/g dry wt) and were comparatively higher than other studies. The difference between the two sites was due to e-waste recycling operations, for example, open burning, which led to high background levels. Moreover, mothers from the e-waste recycling site consumed more foods of animal origin. The estimated daily intake of PCDD/Fs within 6 months by breastfed infants from the e-waste processing site was 2 times higher than that from the reference site. Both values exceeded the WHO tolerable daily intake for adults by at least 25 and 11 times, respectively. Our results implicated that e-waste recycling operations cause prominent PCDD/F levels in the environment and in humans. The elevated body burden may have health implications for the next generation.