Biomonitoring of selected persistent organic pollutants (PCDD/Fs, PCBs and PBDEs) in Finnish and Russian terrestrial and aquatic animal species

A Holma-Suutari; P Ruokojärvi; A A Komarov; D A Makarov; V V Ovcharenko; A N Panin; H Kiviranta; S Laaksonen; M Nieminen; M Viluksela; A Hallikainen

doi:10.1186/s12302-016-0071-z

Biomonitoring of selected persistent organic pollutants (PCDD/Fs, PCBs and PBDEs) in Finnish and Russian terrestrial and aquatic animal species

Environ Sci Eur. 2016;28(1):5. doi: 10.1186/s12302-016-0071-z. Epub 2016 Feb 11.

Authors

A Holma-Suutari¹, P Ruokojärvi², A A Komarov³, D A Makarov³, V V Ovcharenko³, A N Panin³, H Kiviranta², S Laaksonen⁴, M Nieminen⁵, M Viluksela⁶, A Hallikainen⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biology, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 3000, 90014 Oulu, Finland.
² Department of Environmental Health, National Institute for Health and Welfare, P.O. Box 95, 70701 Kuopio, Finland.
³ The All-Russian State Center for Quality and Standardization of Veterinary Drugs and Feed (VGNKI), Zvenigorodskoe Highway 5, Moscow, Russian Federation 123022.
⁴ University of Helsinki, Nurminiementie 2, 93600 Kuusamo, Finland.
⁵ Reindeer Research Station, Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute, Toivoniementie 246, 99100 Kaamanen, Finland.
⁶ Department of Environmental Health, National Institute for Health and Welfare, P.O. Box 95, 70701 Kuopio, Finland ; Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, 70211 Kuopio, Finland.
⁷ Risk Assessment Research Unit, Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira, Mustialankatu 3, 00790 Helsinki, Finland.

Abstract

Background: The Finnish and Russian animal species (semi-domesticated reindeer, Finnish wild moose, Baltic grey seal and Baltic herring) samples were biomonitored in terrestrial and aquatic environments for polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs).

Results: Grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) was clearly the most contaminated species. The mean PBDE concentration in grey seal was 115 ng/g fat, and the highest WHO-PCDD/F-PCB-TEQ (toxic equivalent set by WHO) was 327 pg/g fat. In Finnish, reindeer WHO-PCDD/F-TEQ varied from 0.92 pg/g fat in muscle to 90.8 pg/g fat in liver. WHO-PCDD/F-TEQ in moose liver samples was in the range of 0.7-4.26 pg/g fat, and WHO-PCB-TEQ in the range of 0.42-3.34 pg/g fat. Overall moose had clearly lower PCDD/F and DL-PCB concentrations in their liver than reindeer.

Conclusions: Terrestrial animals generally had low POP concentrations, but in reindeer liver dioxin levels were quite high. All Finnish and Russian reindeer liver samples exceeded the EU maximum level [8] for PCDD/Fs (10 pg/g fat), which is currently set for bovine animals.

Keywords: Animals; Biomonitoring; Dioxins; Liver; Organs.