PARENT SESSION
6D Exposure assessment for aquatic and terrestrial risk assessment
9:00 AM to 7:00 PM, Monday, 07 May 2001

(M/FF230) Bioaccumulation of arsenic in aquacultural large-scale mullet Liza macrolepis from blackfoot disease area in Taiwan.

Lin, Ming-Chao¹, Liao, Chung-Min², Liu, Chen-Wuing², Singh, Sher², ^{1 2}

ABSTRACT- This study presents the arsenic (As) concentration in aquaculture water in the blackfoot disease (BFD) area in Taiwan and the bioaccumulation of As by the fish Liza macrolepis. The coastal regions of southwestern Taiwan are subjected to polluted groundwater of As. Nowadays most of the people who live in these areas do not drink water from wells, however, the groundwater is still used for aquaculture. The mean concentration of As in the sampled culture farms is 79.9 ± 60.6 g L^-1, which is higher than the drinking water standard in Taiwan. Large-scale mullet Liza macrolepis, which was collected form the culture farm with a measured As concentration 169.7 ± 68.8 g L^-1, contains a As concentration of 2.35 ± 0.93 g g^-1. The bioconcentration factor (BCF) value of As in L. macrolepis, was determined to be 13.85. The As concentration in fish showed a significant negative correlation with body weight of the fish: C_b = 71.827w^-0.8579, where C_b is the As concentration in fish body (g g^-1) and w is the body weight of fish (g). The processes that caused the decrease in the concentrations of As in the larger fish may due to a "growth dilution" effect. Since using the groundwater for aquaculture may cause an overexposure of inorganic As, the consumption of cultured fish from polluted areas may pose a serious risk to human health.

Key words: Aquaculture, Arsenic, Bioaccumulation, Fish