Dietary exposure to polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans via fish consumption and dioxin-like activity in fish determined by H4IIE-luc bioassay

Abstract

Dietary exposure to polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) via fish consumption in two major electronic (e) waste sites: Guiyu (GY), Guangdong Province and Taizhou (TZ), Zhejiang Province, and dioxin-like activity in fish determined by H4IIE-luc bioassay. In the present study, all fish were below EU's maximum allowable concentration in muscle of fish (4pg WHO-TEQ/g wet wt), except crucian (4.28pg WHO-TEQ/g wet wt) and silver carps (7.49pg WHO-TEQ/g wet wt) collected from GY rivers. Moreover, the residual concentration in bighead carp collected from GY (2.15pg WHO-TEQ/g wet wt) was close to the EU's action level (3pg WHO-TEQ/g wet wt) which gives 'early warning' to the competent authorities and operators to take measures to eliminate contamination. In addition, results indicated that the maximum human intake of PCDD/Fs via freshwater fish consumption in GY was 4.31pg WHO-TEQ/kg bw/day, which exceeds the higher end of the tolerable daily intake recommended by the WHO, EC-SCF and JECFA (1-4, 2 and 2.3pg WHO-TEQ/kg bw/day respectively). Furthermore, H4IIE-luc cell bioassay provides a very sensitive and cost-efficient screening tool for assessing the overall dioxin-like toxicity in the study, and is therefore valuable for high-throughput environmental monitoring studies.