Profiles of Great Lakes Critical Pollutants: A Sentinel Analysis of Human Blood and Urine

Abstract

To determine the contaminants that should be studied further in the subsequent population-based study, a profile of Great Lakes (GL) sport fish contaminant residues were studied in human blood and urine specimens from 32 sport fish consumers from three Great Lakes: Lake Michigan (n = 10), Lake Huron (n = 11), and Lake Erie (n = 11). Serum was analyzed for 8 polychlorinated dioxin congeners, 10 polychlorinated furan congeners, 4 coplanar and 32 other polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners, and 11 persistent chlorinated pesticides. Whole blood was analyzed for mercury and lead. Urine samples were analyzed for 10 nonpersistent pesticides (or their metabolites) and 5 metals. One individual was excluded from statistical analysis because of an unusual exposure to selected analytes. Overall, the sample (n = 31) consumed, on average, 49 GL sport fish meals per year for a mean of 33 years. On average, the general population in the GL basin consume 6 meals of GL sport fish per year. The mean tissue levels of most persistent, bioaccumulative compounds also found in GL sport fish ranged from less than a twofold increase to that of PCB 126, which was eight times the selected background levels found in the general population. The overall mean total toxic equivalent for dioxins, furans, and coplanar PCBs were greater than selected background levels in the general population (dioxins, 1.8 times; furans, 2.4 times; and coplanar PCBs, 9.6 times). The nonpersistent pesticides and most metals were not identified in unusual concentrations. A contaminant pattern among lake subgroups was evident. Lake Erie sport fish consumers had consistently lower contaminant concentrations than consumers of sport fish from Lake Michigan and Huron. These interlake differences are consistent with contaminant patterns seen in sport fish tissue from the respective lakes; GL sport fish consumption was the most likely explanation for observed contaminant levels among this sample. Frequent consumers of sport fish proved to be effective sentinels for identifying sport fish contaminants of concern. In the larger study to follow, serum samples will be tested for PCBs (congener specific and coplanar), DDE, dioxin, and furans.

Epidemiologic Studies of PCB Congener Profiles in North American Fish Consuming Populations

“…Salient findings from several of these studies are summarized below. These studies illustrate difficulties public health researchers have in extrapolating from food-source-observations to estimates of contaminant concentration levels in body tissues of exposed consumers and subsequent disease in the population (48)(49)(50)(51)(52)(53)(54).…”

“…Differences between rows 1-3 and rows 4-6 represent Underlined congeners e.g., 28, 31 or 138, 158, 263 occupy the same elution volume R f in that particular gas-chromatogram-electron-capture run. Therefore a conclusion on the existence of a discriminatory peak marking an individual congener is not possible and the congeners are placed together as a group (48)(49)(50)(51)(52)(53)(54)(55)(56)(57)(58)(59).…”

“…This is realized upon appreciation that in traditional food systems of the North, a food item denoted by a single word may refer to a dish containing up to 50 or even more species of animals and plants. This makes preliminary estimates of health risk calculated upon contamination of a few individual food-source items, an extremely difficult task (49)(50)(51)(52)(53).…”

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“…There are valid arguments (Payne et al 2001) to apply the concept of ''dose additivity'' (Bolt and Mumtaz 1996) to this situation, but the HBMOS derived here seems sufficiently high to support the general conclusion by SKLM (DFG 1998) that man-made compounds with oestrogenic action are taken up with foods in quantities which do not present a health risk. Laws et al 1967USA, 1993 0.3 5.2 0.06 Anderson et al 1998Germany, 1991 0.2 1.5-3.3 a n.d. Go¨en and Angerer 1997 Extreme levels (population in India, close to a DDT factory) India, 1988/1989 2090 870 110 Nair and Pillai 1992 a Values are consistent with a combined analysis of five recent US studies (Laden et al 2001) …”

Polychlorinated Biphenyls and Polybrominated Biphenyls

“…The overall mean serum PBB concentration in 30 subjects was 0.4 µg/L. When stratified by lake, serum concentrations were highest for people who ate fish from Lake Huron (mean, 0.6 µg/L; range, 0.1-1.7 µg/L), followed by Lake Michigan (mean, 0.4 µg/L; range, 0.04-1.0 µg/L) and Lake Erie (mean, (Anderson et al, 1998).…”