Survey of Persistent Organochlorine Contaminants (PCDD, PCDF, and PCB) in Fish Collected from the Polish Baltic Fishing Areas

Concentrations and congener-specific profiles of PCDDs, PCDFs, dl-PCBs, and ndl-PCBs were determined in five species of edible fish from the Baltic Sea (ICES 24-27): salmon (Salmo salar), Baltic herring (Clupea harengus membras), sprat (Sprattus sprattus balticus), sea trout (Salmo trutta m. trutta), and cod (Gadus morhua callarias). Marker PCBs were the dominant compounds (0.07-60.84 ng/g w.w.), followed by dl-PCBs (0.64-6.07 pg WHO-TEQ/g w.w.) and PCDD/PCDFs (0.22-5.67 pg WHO-TEQ w.w). The concentration levels of contaminants varied between species. Salmon possessed the highest concentrations (up to 14.11 +/- 2.36 pg WHO-TEQ/g w.w.) and cod the lowest ones (0.84 +/- 0.14 pg WHO-TEQ/g w.w.). Congener profile in the fish tested had similar pattern. The largest contribution to the dioxin toxicity was caused successively by PCB 126, 118, 156, furans (2,3,4,7,8-PeCDF and 2,3,7,8-TCDF), and two dioxins: 1,2,3,7,8-PeCDD and 2,3,7,8-TCDD. Although the dietary consumption of fish from southwest region of the Baltic Sea did not represent a risk for human health (because of very low consumption of marine fish), the excessive eating of some of them may be of significance importance for health of various subgroups of consumers (fishermen).