PARENT SESSION
PS19 - Bioavailability
Sunday, 17 November 2002
8:00 AM to 6:30 PM
Exhibit Hall
(P170) Tenax extraction to measure bioavailability of organic contaminants for soil and sediment inhabiting organisms.
ten Hulscher, Theodora*,1, Postma, Jaap2, den Besten, Piet1, Stroomberg, Gerard2, Belfroid, Angelique3, Wegener, Jan Willem3, Faber, Jack4, van der Pol, Joost4, Hendriks, Jan1, van Noort, Paul, 1 RIZA, Lelystad, the Netherlands2 AquaSense, Amsterdam, the Netherlands3 Institute for Environmental Studies, VU, Amsterdam, the Netherlands4 Alterra, Wageningen, the Netherlands
ABSTRACT- Biota to sediment accumulation factors (BSAFs) are widely used to describe the potential accumulation of organic contaminants in organisms. From field studies, it is known that these BSAFs can vary dramatically between sediments of different origin. One of the explanations that is offered is the possible variation of bioavailability of organic contaminants in sediment. In the present study it is shown that the variability in BSAF values for different sediment samples obtained at two Dutch freshwater sites could largely be explained by the variation in Tenax-extractable concentrations in these sediments. Variations of a factor of about 50 could be explained. The ratio between concentrations in biota and Tenax-extractable concentrations in sediment varied somewhat between sediments and contaminant class, but was close to the theoretically proposed value of 2. This is a strong indication that Tenax extractable concentrations of contaminants in sediments are a very good indicator of available concentrations.
Key words: organic contaminants, bioavailability, sediment and soil, BSAF