Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in sediment and fish tissues from Lake Chaohu, central eastern China

Abstract

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) levels in environmental media have increased over the last 20-25 years in the world. In aquatic environments PBDEs were found to be accumulated along food chain and Endocrine disruptors toxicity. In this study PBDEs were investigated in sediment and fish tissues from Lake Chaohu in central eastern China. There were 10 PBDEs congeners detected out of all 41 PBDEs. BDE-47 was of the highest with 5.17 ng/g in sediment and 58.47 ng/g in fish. PBDEs were evenly distributed across the surface sediment in the whole lake. It implied that the main source of PBDEs may not be an inflow river like Nanfei. Tissue distribution patterns of PBDEs in four fish species were in the order of BDE-47 > BDE-99 > BDE-100 > BDE-66 > BDE-138 > BDE-183 > BDE-154 > BDE-153. Octa- and deca-BDEs were below the detection limit. The concentrations of all PBDE congeners were higher in gills, livers, and kidneys than those in muscles and adipose tissue. Furthermore, PBDEs in different tissues had some different distribution patterns with fish size. Those discrepancies appeared to be correlated with the PBDEs pollution fluxes varying with the change of the year and their metabolism divergences in fish tissues.

Keywords

• polybrominated diphenyl ethers
• exposure level
• sediment
• tissue distribution
• Lake Chaohu