Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofuran contents in fish and sediment near a pentachlorophenol contaminated site

Abstract

Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) in sediment and fish of aqua farms close to a contaminated site of a pentachlorophenol production plant (CPDC-ASS) were investigated. The total PCDD/F I-TEQ level in sediment and fish ranged from 0.725 to 87.9 ng I-TEQ kg^-1d.w.^-1 and 0.044 to 3.10 pg I-TEQ g^-1w.w.^-1, respectively, meaning that the CPDC-ASS was a long-term exposure PCDD/F contaminated area. The four dominant congeners in sediment and fish were OCDD, OCDF, 1,2,3,4,6,7,8-HpCDF and 1,2,3,4,6,7,8-HpCDD. The correlated coefficient of total I-TEQ PCDD/F contents between fish and sediment was 0.82 (R²), indicating a positive correlation between exposure to PCDD/Fs in sediment and biota. In addition, the biota-to-sediment accumulation factors (BSAFs) values of low chlorinated PCDD/F congeners such as those of 2,3,7,8-TeCDD for Milkfish and Tilapia were 0.00739 and 0.00593, respectively, which were much higher than those of highly chlorinated congeners. For example, the BSAFs of OCDD for Milkfish and Tilapia were 0.000207 and 0.000277, respectively. A negative relationship of log K_ow and log BSAF for PCDD/F congeners was found, and the highest value was observed at approximately K_ow= 7.0–7.5. The results of this study provide valuable information for establishing the PCDD/F regulated standard for the sediment of fish ponds.

Keywords:

• PCDD/Fs
• fish
• sediment
• pentachlorophenol contaminated site

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge Mr. Jian-Yuan Yu and Mr. Chih-Chieh Lai for their help in the analytical work.