PARENT SESSION
WP8 - Alkylphenols / Alkylphenol Ethoxylates
Chair: Gundersen, Jennifer1, 1 US EPA, Office of Analytical Services & Quality Assurance, Fort Meade, MD
2:10 PM to 5:30 PM - Wednesday, 20 November 2002
Room Ballroom C
(633) Survey of alkylphenol and alkylphenol ethoxylates in fish from the Great Lakes and from contaminated US rivers near the Great Lakes.
Rice, Clifford*,1, Schmitz-Afonso, Isabelle1, Aviles, Maria2, Hoffman, Brian3, Smith, Stephen4, Gannon, John5, Begnoche, Linda5, 1 U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD, USA2 University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA3 Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blackburg, VA, USA4 U. S. Geological Survey, Biological Resources Division, Reston, VA, USA5 U.S. Geological Survey, Great Lakes Science Center, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
ABSTRACT- Elevated residues of alkylphenols and alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEs) have been documented to occur in fish collected near waste water treatment plants (WWTP). Other studies indicate these exposures may cause endocrine effects. Most of these environmental studies come to us from Europe and the United Kingdom. There is a general lack of survey data for APEs in fish from contaminated sites in the US. To help fill this gap we conducted an exploratory study of carp and selected top-predator fish from the Great Lakes and from some effluent-dominated rivers in Chicago, Detroit and St. Paul. At each of the more contaminated sites, carp were found to be excellent accumulators of APEs while large mouth bass collected from our Detroit river site accumulated only about 1/10th as much total APE as were measured in carp at this site. The North Branch of the Chicago River produced carp with the highest average level of APEs (16 mg/kg fresh wt) and walleye collected from the St. Paul metropolitan outfall had the next highest average level of APEs ( 6.1 mg/kg fresh wt.). Average levels of APEs in carp at the other contaminated sites ranged from 1.6 to 2.3 mg/kg fresh weight. In most of these samples the summed AP and APEO mixes were composed of three main APE groupings, the non-substituted form of NP and OP plus the 1 and 2 ethoxymers forms of each of these phenol classes. Generally AP1EO contributed most to the total, however at some locations the 3 ethoxymer was also measured. Low but detectable levels of APEs were measured in Lake trout obtained from Lake Michigan, near Saugatuck (24 ug/kg ?NP only).
Key words: fish residues, alkylphenol ethoxylates, nonylphenols, octylphenols