The use of fish bile metabolite analyses as exposure biomarkers to pulp and paper mill effluents

Caddis larvae (Trichoptera, Hydropsychidae) indicate delaying recovery of a watercourse polluted by pulp and paper industry

“…Elevated levels of these compounds have been commonly found from the sediments downstream from pulp and paper mills Oikari, 2005, 2006;. Although, the purification efficiency of the current effluents has been improved due to the modern technology , resin acids and wood sterols, among other bioactive compounds, are still potentially released to the water Leppänen et al, 1998;. Despite their moderately hydrophobic characteristics, they end up in the sediment only temporarily.…”

“…Harmful substances can nowadays be effectively removed from the effluents, but some amounts are still released Leppänen et al, 1998;. * Corresponding author.…”

Distribution and bioconcentration of endocrine disrupting chemicals in surface water and fish bile of the Pearl River Delta, South China

“…numerous chemical substances, including estrogens and alkylphenols, tend to concentrate as glucuronide and sulfate conjugates in fish bile (Larsson et al, 1999;Ferreira-Leach and Hill, 2001;Legler et al, 2002;Pedersen and Hill, 2002). Moreover, analysis of fish bile, representative of recent exposure to bioavailable contaminants, was employed to identify and quantify polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (Ruddock et al, 2003;Johnson-Restrepo et al, 2008), chlorinated phenols (Brumley et al, 1998), resin, and fatty acids from pulp and paper mill effluents (Leppänen et al, 1998). Finally, a good correlation (r = 0.81 and p = 0.0002) was found between the bile E2 activity equivalents (EEQs) concentration and plasma vitellogenin induction in male bream, demonstrating that occurrence of biliary xenoestrogens can be an indication of internal exposure to these compounds (Legler et al, 2002).…”

Resin Acids in Bile Samples From Fish Inhabiting Marine Waters Affected by Pulp Mill Effluents

“…Treatments have significantly reduced these compounds and, consequently, their toxic effects. However, the chronic toxicity of the The high toxicity of resin acids for fish populations has been known for a long time 10 . In spite of these well-grounded suspicions indicating that resin acids, specifically abietic acid, are responsible for the observed reproductive effects in the fish, it has not been possible to determine whether these are due directly to the effluents or to some chemical reaction external to the pulping process occurring in the receptive bodies where the residual waters are released 11 .…”

“…Fish can excrete organic pollutants through a variety of routes, including gills, skin, mucus, bile, urine and feces 14 . An efficient way to evaluate the degree of exposure of a fish to a certain pollutant and to indirectly estimate the degree of bioavailability of acid resins is to measure the concentration of the compounds or its metabolites in the bile fluids 6,10,15,16 . The most important sites for the toxic action of these pollutants in fish are the gills 14 , erythrocytes 17 , and hepatocytes 12 .…”