Determination of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) in Freshwater Fish Around a Deca-brominated Diphenyl Ether (deca-BDE) Production Facility by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS)

Abstract

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were determined in 36 fish samples near a deca- brominated diphenyl ether (deca-BDE) production facility in Weifang City, Shandong Province, China. The concentrations of PBDEs in fish muscle and liver samples were from 45.8 to 560 ng g⁻¹ lipid weight (lw) and 327 to 2120 ng g⁻¹, lw, respectively. The highest concentration of PBDEs was found in carp with a mean value of 1370 ng g⁻¹, lw, followed by crucian with a mean of 1030 ng g⁻¹, lw, and grass carp with a mean of 681 ng g⁻¹, lw. Relatively constant congener patterns were observed among the fish species. BDE-47 was the most predominant congener with contributions of 50.1% to 89.7% to the total PBDE concentrations. Different BDE-99/BDE-100 ratios were observed, indicating that the PBDE pattern is species-dependent.

Keywords:

• Brominated flame retardants (BFRs)
• deca-brominated diphenyl ether (deca-BDE)
• fish
• gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS)
• polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs)

Disclosure

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Compliance with ethical standard

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFC0401105) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (PT1805).