Hepatic polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) levels in Wisconsin river otters (Lontra canadensis) and Michigan bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)

Abstract

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are persistent and toxic flame-retardant chemicals widespread in the Great Lakes ecosystem. These chemicals are now being regulated and phased-out of the region; therefore it remains important to understand the extent of contamination in order to track the efficacy of recent actions. Here, Σ4PBDE congeners (PBDE-47, 99, 100, 153;wetweight basis unless indicated)were determined in liver tissues from Wisconsin river otters (Lontra canadensis; n = 35; 2009–2010) and Michigan bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus; n = 33; 2009–2011). In otters, Σ4PBDE ranged from0.5 to 72.9 ng/g, with a mean (±SD) and median (25th–75th percentile inter-quartile range) of 16.3 ± 16.4 ng/g and 11.3 (5.6–18.9) ng/g, respectively. The mean lipid-adjusted Σ4PBDE was 1377 ± 1485 ng/g. In eagles, Σ4PBDE ranged from 0 to 1,538.8 ng/g, with a mean and median of 74.3 ± 266.7 ng/g and 21.2 (5.7–28.9) ng/g, respectively. The mean lipid-adjusted Σ4PBDE was 5274.5 ± 19,896.1 ng/g. In both species, PBDE-47 accounted for >50% of the Σ4PBDE, followed by PBDE-99 and PBDE-100 (each ~17–19% of the total). The PBDE levels reported here in otters are similar to mammalian wildlife elsewhere, though the levels in eagles are among the highest worldwide across studied birds. The findings indicate that apex Great Lakes wildlife remain exposed to appreciable levels of PBDEs and more work is needed to understand whether such exposures are associated with adverse health outcomes.

Epididymal Cysts: Are They Associated With Infertility?

“…The entire state was contaminated in the early 1970s when the flame retardant polychlorinated biphenyl was inadvertently introduced into cattle feed and hence the food chain in the state. It is worthwhile to note that polybrominated diphenyl ether (another flame retardant) levels are highest in bald eagle populations in Michigan compared with elsewhere in Canada and the United States (Dornbos et al, 2015). Given these observations, it is possible that men in Michigan are more at risk for exposure to POCs because of geographic constraints and environmental contamination.…”

Optimization of a new selective pressurized liquid extraction methodology for determining organic pollutants in wild boar livers

“…To our knowledge, scarce literature about the concentration of OPs in wild boar liver is available due to the complexity of the selected biological sample [4] , [5] , [6] , [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] , [11] , [12] , [13] , [14] , [15] , [16] , [17] , [18] , [19] , [20] . For these reasons, it is required to develop quick and simple techniques capable of efficiently detecting a wide range of contaminants.…”

“…Most of the studies focus on the determination of a single group of compounds. These researches use classical extractive techniques such as solid-liquid extraction (SLE) or soxhlet followed by clean-up steps using gel permeation chromatography (GPC) or solid-phase extraction (SPE with different absorbents (silica, alumina, florisil...) [ [4] , [5] , [6] , [8] , [9] , [10] , [11] , [12] , [13] , [14] , [15] , [16] , [17] ]. The main disadvantages of these techniques are the use of large amounts of solvent and the need for additional cleaning steps to avoid interferences, which involves possible loss of analytes and waste of time.…”

Cell damage induced by polybrominated diphenyl ethers on Chironomus sancticaroli (Diptera: Chironomidae)

“…They used to be commercialised in the formulation of penta-BDE, octa-BDE and deca-BDE (Alaee et al, 2003;Vonderheide et al, 2008;WHO, 1997). Currently, 2',4, and 2',4,4', are most frequently encountered in environmental samples and animal tissues (Cunha et al, 2010;Dornbos et al, 2015;Kalantzi et al, 2009). Nevertheless, 2', has also been detected (Christiansson et al, 2008;Mumford et al, 2015;Olukunle et al, 2015).…”

“…Due to their physico-chemical properties, PBDEs are persistent and prone to long-range atmospheric transport. Therefore, they have been detected in aquatic and terrestrial organisms, including human blood and breast milk (De Wit et al, 2010;Dornbos et al, 2015;Hurley et al, 2017;Zheng et al, 2016). Several studies have shown that some congeners modify developmental and reproductive systems (Dufault et al, 2005;Usenko et al, 2011), are neurotoxic (Costa et al, 2014;Zheng et al, 2017) and carcinogenic (Man et al, 2011;Ward et al, 2014) and induce endocrine disruption (Fernie et al, 2005;Metcalfe et al, 2013).…”