Expanded analyses of polychlorinated biphenyl residues in U.S. freshwater fish
- National Biological Service, Columbia, MO (United States)
The National Contaminant Biomonitoring Program (NCBP), administered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service from 1967 to 1993, documented the decline of organochlorine chemical residue concentrations in freshwater fish inhabiting large US rivers and the Great Lakes. Among the residues that decreased significantly were those of the polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), total concentrations of which declined most substantially in fish from the most heavily contaminated US waterways--primarily industrialized rivers of the Northeast and Midwest, and the Great Lakes. Despite declining concentrations of total PCBs, the environmental risks associated with PCBs in fish remain a concern. Samples collected in 1988 from 26 NCBP sites with historically elevated PCB concentrations were therefore analyzed for individual PCB congeners by high-resolution gas chromatography (GC) and GC-mass spectrometry. Total PCB concentrations in these samples were 0.37 (Columbia R.) to 4.6 (L. Ontario) {micro}g/g. Multivariate statistical analyses indicated that the composition of PCB mixtures in fish from the Mississippi and Ohio rivers most closely resembled commercial formulations, and those from Lake Superior the least. On the basis of toxicity, as represented by total 2,3,7,8-tetrachloro-p-dioxin (dioxin)-equivalent concentrations computed using individual congener concentrations and toxic equivalency factors, fish from the Great Lakes pose the greatest risk; dioxin-equivalent concentrations were highest in samples from Lakes Ontario and Michigan, due primarily to the comparatively high concentrations of 3,3{prime},4,4{prime},5-pentachlorobiphenyl in these samples.
- OSTI ID:
- 390170
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9511137-; ISBN 1-880611-03-1; TRN: IM9646%%455
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 2. Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) world conference, Vancouver (Canada), 5-9 Nov 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of Second SETAC world congress (16. annual meeting): Abstract book. Global environmental protection: Science, politics, and common sense; PB: 378 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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