Co-occurrence of contaminants in marine fish from the North East Atlantic Ocean: Implications for human risk assessment

Quang Tri Ho; Michael S Bank; Atabak M Azad; Bente M Nilsen; Sylvia Frantzen; Stepan Boitsov; Amund Maage; Tanja Kögel; Monica Sanden; Livar Frøyland; Rita Hannisdal; Helge Hove; Anne-Katrine Lundebye; Ole Jakob Nøstbakken; Lise Madsen

doi:10.1016/j.envint.2021.106858

Co-occurrence of contaminants in marine fish from the North East Atlantic Ocean: Implications for human risk assessment

Environ Int. 2021 Dec:157:106858. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2021.106858. Epub 2021 Sep 13.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway.
² Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway; University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA. Electronic address: Michael.Bank@hi.no.
³ Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway; University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
⁴ Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway; University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.

PMID: 34530291
DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2021.106858

Abstract

Marine fish from the North East Atlantic Ocean (NEAO) are nutrient rich and considered a valuable economic resource. However, marine fish are also a major dietary source of several contaminants, including persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and heavy metals. Using one of the world's largest seafood datasets (n > 25,000 individuals), comprising 12 commercially important fish species collected during 2006-2019 in the NEAO, we assessed the co-occurrence of elements and POPs, and evaluated potential risks to human consumers. Several positive correlations between concentrations of mercury (Hg), dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were observed. Concentrations of Hg, dioxins, PCBs and PBDEs increased from North to South and associations between marine sediment contamination, sea temperature, and fish Hg and POPs concentrations were identified using multi-linear regression (MLR) models. In general, Hg concentrations in fillet and liver of fish were positively associated with increases in both sediment contamination and sea temperature. POPs concentrations in both fillet and liver were positively associated with increases in sediment contamination, and only POPs concentrations in the liver of benthopelagic and demersal species were found to be positively correlated with sea temperature. Using a probabilistic approach to estimate human contaminant exposure from seafood, we showed that intake of pelagic species posed the highest risk of dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs (DL-PCBs) exposure, while intake of benthopelagic and demersal species posed the highest risk of Hg exposure. This study can serve as a model to further understand the distribution, co-occurrence, and trends of contaminants in seafood harvested from the NEAO and their potential risks to human consumers.

Keywords: Human exposure; Mercury; Modelling; POPs; Sea temperature; Seafood; Sediment.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Atlantic Ocean
Fishes
Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers / analysis
Humans
Polychlorinated Biphenyls* / analysis
Risk Assessment
Seafood / analysis
Water Pollutants, Chemical* / analysis

Substances

Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers
Water Pollutants, Chemical
Polychlorinated Biphenyls