Brominated flame retardants in eel from the Scheldt river (Belgium)
Goemans, G.; Roosens, L.; Dirtu, A.C.; Belpaire, C.; Neels, H.; Covaci, A. (2007). Brominated flame retardants in eel from the Scheldt river (Belgium). Organohalogen Compounds 69: 445-448 In: Organohalogen Compounds. European Group for Organizational Studies/Federal Environmental Agency (Umweltbundesamt): Vienna. ISSN 1026-4892, more |
| Keywords | Anguilla anguilla (Linnaeus, 1758) [WoRMS]
Marine/Coastal; Brackish water; Fresh water |
| Abstract | Brominated flame retardants (BFRs), such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), were measured in pooled eel samples originating from different locations along the river Scheldt, including 2 reference locations (closed water bodies), all situated nearby Oudenaarde. Total HBCD levels (range 70 – 10 100 ng/ lipid weight) in the eel samples were measured by GC-MS and were higher than PBDE levels (40 – 1 010 ng/g lipid weight), probably related to the textile industries nearby Oudenaarde. The predominant PBDE congeners were BDE 47, 100, 99 and 49, originating from the former use of the Penta-BDE formulation. The high variation in contamination levels between the different sampling locations resulted in a variable contribution to the total human exposure through eel consumption, ranging between 3 ng and 327 ng/day for PBDEs for normal eel consumers. Decreasing contamination levels of PBDEs and HBCD over the period of 6 years were observed in eel for the same locations. However, these levels are still an order of magnitude higher than levels reported in other studies in Flanders |
|
