Organochlorine Pesticides and Polychlorinated Biphenyl Residues in Foodstuffs and Human Tissues from China: Status of Contamination, Historical Trend, and Human Dietary Exposure

Although most countries banned manufacturing of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) over 40 years ago, PCBs remain a global concern for wildlife and human health due to high bioaccumulation and biopersistance. PCB uptake mechanisms have been well studied in many taxa; however, less is known about depuration rates and how post-exposure diet can influence PCB concentrations and immune response in fish and wildlife populations. In a controlled laboratory environment, we investigated the influence of subchronic dietary exposure to two PCB Aroclors and food deprivation on tissue-specific concentrations of total PCBs and PCB homologs and innate immune function in channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus). Overall, we found that the concentration of total PCBs and PCB homologs measured in whole body, fillet, and liver tissues declined more slowly in food-deprived fish, with slowest depuration observed in the liver. Additionally, fish that were exposed to PCBs had lower plasma cortisol concentrations, reduced phagocytic oxidative burst activity, and lower cytotoxic activity, suggesting that PCBs can influence stress and immune responses. However, for most measures of immune function, the effects of food deprivation had a larger effect on immune response than did PCB exposure. Taken together, these results suggest that short-term dietary exposure to PCBs can increase toxicity of consumable fish tissues for several weeks, and that PCB mixtures modulate immune and stress responses via multiple pathways. These results may inform development of human consumption advisories and can help predict and understand the influence of PCBs on fish health.

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Occurrence of Organochlorine Pesticides in Human Tissues Assessed Using a Microextraction Procedure and Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry

Journal of Analytical Toxicology ◽

10.1093/jat/bkaa036 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Marta Pastor Belda ◽

José Antonio González-Franco ◽

Ricardo Rubio ◽

Natalia Campillo ◽

Manuel Hernández-Córdoba ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mass Spectrometry ◽

Gas Chromatography ◽

Organochlorine Pesticides ◽

Abdominal Fat ◽

Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry ◽

Human Tissues ◽

Salting Out ◽

Chromatography Mass Spectrometry ◽

Relative Standard ◽

Dispersive Liquid Liquid Microextraction

Abstract This work focuses on the development, validation and application of an analytical method for the determination of twenty organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in human tissues using salting-out liquid–liquid extraction and dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction for sample preparation and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry to analyze the obtained extracts. Measurement of the concentration levels of these toxics in tissues can be used to assess the risk of the population to exposure. The linearity of the proposed method was verified in the 10–1,000 ng/g range. The sensitivity was evaluated calculating the limits of detection (LODs) for 20 OCPs (α-, β-, γ- and δ-hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH), α- and β-endosulfan, endosulfan sulfate, aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, endrin ketone, endrin aldehyde, α- and γ-chlordane, 4,4′-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, 4,4′-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE), 4,4′-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane, heptachlor, heptachlor epoxide and methoxychlor), most of them being found between 1.0 and 16 ng/g. The intra- and interday precisions were <12% for relative standard deviation values. The accuracy of the method was evaluated by recovery studies, which gave recovery percentages in the 85–109% range. Seven different tissues (liver, kidney, heart, spleen, lung, brain and abdominal fat) from eight autopsies were analyzed, and only three cases were seen to have β-HCH and 4,4′-DDE in abdominal fat, while 4,4′-DDE was also detected in the heart of one case. The rest of the samples were free of the studied OCPs at least above the corresponding LODs.

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Organochlorine Pesticides and Polychlorinated Biphenyl Congeners in Commercial Fish from the Great Lakes

Journal of AOAC International ◽

10.1093/jaoac/76.4.707 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 76 (4) ◽

pp. 707-710 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

W Harvey Newsome ◽

Paul Andrews

Keyword(s):

Great Lakes ◽

Organochlorine Pesticides ◽

Organochlorine Pesticide ◽

Polychlorinated Biphenyl ◽

Commercial Fish ◽

Pcb Congeners ◽

Fish Samples ◽

Commercial Operation ◽

Wet Weight ◽

Contaminated Area

Abstract Fillets from 11 species of commercial fish from the Great Lakes were analyzed for residues of 39 polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners and 24 other organochlorine compounds. Eel and trout contained the highest amount of PCB (753 and 633 ppb wet weight, respectively) and other organochlorines (607 and 1404 ppb, respectively); perch and carp contained the lowest residues. The pentaand hexachlorinated PCBs were the major congeners in all species except whitefish, in which the tetrachlorinated congeners predominated. Toxaphene was the most abundant organochlorine pesticide in trout; p,p′ -DDE was the major component of this class in eel. Residue concentrations in commercial carp were compared with residues present in carp from a fishery closed to commercial operation. Although both PCB and organochlorine pesticide levels in carp were among the lowest for all commercial fish samples, levels from the contaminated area were among the highest.

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Historical versus recent levels of organochlorine contaminants in lamprey larvae of the St. Lawrence River basin, Québec

Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences ◽

10.1139/f95-027 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 52 (2) ◽

pp. 268-275 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Claud B. Renaud ◽

Klaus L. E. Kaiser ◽

Michael E. Comba

Keyword(s):

Organochlorine Pesticides ◽

River Basin ◽

Inverse Relationship ◽

Polychlorinated Biphenyl ◽

Persistent Organochlorine ◽

Significant Inverse Relationship ◽

Pcb Congeners ◽

Organochlorine Contaminants ◽

St Lawrence River

This study shows that persistent organochlorine contaminants, including PCBs, reached higher concentrations in lamprey of the St. Lawrence River basin 40 years ago. A comparison was made of the concentrations of 22 organochlorine pesticides and 93 polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners in formalin-preserved lamprey ammocoetes collected between 1947–1950 and in 1990 in the St-François and Ste-Anne rivers, St. Lawrence River basin, Québec. Eight pesticides (β-BHC, α-Chlordane, γ-Chlordane, p,p′-DDD, o,p′-DDE, p,p′-DDE, p,p′-DDT, and Heptachlor) reached higher concentrations in the earlier period, with Mirex being the only pesticide found in higher concentrations in 1990. Seventeen PCB congeners (24(27), 28, 98(84), 101, 110(77), 128, 129, 141, 149, 151, 158, 174, 177, 180, 183, 187(182), and 198) had higher concentrations in the 1947–1950 period compared with 1990. A significant inverse relationship was found between the concentration of the various PCB congeners and sampling date. The concentrations of DDT have decreased significantly, while its metabolites, DDD and DDE, have increased significantly over the last 40 years.

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