Persistent organic pollutants in marine organism from South Korea: Potential health risks

Abstract

Dietary intake is the most important source of exposure to general public from persistent organic pollutants. This pathway contributes more than 90% of the daily intake for the general population of Korea. The objective of this study was to assess current exposure to organochlorine pesticides, PCBs and dioxin-like compounds in fish and shellfish consumed by the general population in Korea. Sport and market fish were determined. Sport fish showed approximately two times higher level of PCBs and DDTs than market fish, implying that recreational fishery had high potential risk from organochlorine compounds. When risk-based screening value (SV) based on EPA method was calculated using the EPA approach and compared with the chemical concentrations measured in fish monitoring study, total PCB concentrations in all the sport and market fish exceeded the SV value (5.04 ng/g, based on total PCBs), but the other compounds were mostly below SV values. Thus, based on the estimated screening values, PCB compounds were identified as potential chemicals of concern. The contributions of individual DL-PCB congeners to the total 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p -dioxin (TCDD) equivalents (TEQ) were greater than 50%. The greatest TEQ concentration was observed in herring, followed by that in dried anchovy and Sailfin sandfish. The exposure to dioxin-like compounds from current fish consumption patterns was estimated to be 72 pg TEQ WHO/day, which is equal to 1.2 pg TEQ WHO/kg, bw/d, a value that is less than the current tolerable daily intake (TDI) guideline in Korea, namely 4 pg TEQWHO/kg, bw/d. This is largely due to greater fish consumption in Korea, than greater concentration of residues in food.