Brominated, chlorinated and mixed brominated/chlorinated persistent organic pollutants in European eels (Anquilla anquilla) from Latvian lakes

ABSTRACT

Fifty-eight European eel (Anquilla anquilla) specimens collected from five Latvian lakes were investigated for six groups of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including polychlorinated, polybrominated and mixed bromo-chloro dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/DFs, PBDD/DFs and PXDD/DFs), polychlorinated and mixed bromo-chloro biphenyls (PCBs and PXBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). PCDD/DFs and PCBs were found to occur in the range 0.85–15.8 pg Total-WHO₂₀₀₅-TEQ g⁻¹ f.w., and concentrations in most of the samples were below the maximum levels specified in European Commission Regulation (EU) No. 1259/2011. The summed concentrations of 27 PBDEs (∑_PBDE) and 16 non-dioxin-like PCBs (∑_NDL-PCB) were in the ranges of 0.28–26.7 and 6.37–320 ng g⁻¹ f.w., respectively. PBDD/DFs, PXDD/DFs and PXBs show average upper-bound concentrations of 0.05, 0.06 and 0.01 pg TEQ f.w. and collectively contributed 3.4% to the sum TEQ of dioxin-like compounds. The highest contaminant concentrations were measured in samples from lakes near the Baltic Sea and the industrialised area near Riga (Liepajas and Kisezers lakes). A correlation of POP concentration with the length of collected specimens was observed.

KEYWORDS:

• POPs
• mixed halogenated dioxins and biphenyls
• PBDD/Fs
• European eels (Anquilla Anquilla)
• Latvian lakes

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the European Union Reference Laboratory for Dioxins and PCBs in Feed and Food (Freiburg, Germany) and to the Food and Environment Research Agency (York, UK) for their technical support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19440049.2015.1136436

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Programme ‘Agricultural Resources for Sustainable Production on Qualitative and Healthy Foods in Latvia’ (AgroBioRes) (project number 4 ‘Sustainable Use of Local Agricultural Resources for Qualitative and Healthy Food Product Development’).