PARENT SESSION

1J - Bioaccumulation
Poster Hall
8:30 AM - Wednesday, 30 April 2003
Chair: Tarazona, J.¹, ¹
Co-chair: Gobas, F.², ²

(WEP/53) Seasonal distribution of polychlorinated biphenyls in shellfish from the southern coast of S. Korea.

Jeong, Gi Ho¹, Lee, Ka-jeong¹, Lee, Eun-Hwa², Moon, Ji Yong¹, Kim, Young Bok¹, ¹ Pusan National University, Dept. of Chemistry, Busan, S.Korea, S.Korea² Pusan National University, Dept. of Environmental System, Busan, S.Korea, S.Korea

ABSTRACT- In S. Korea, most of the edible shellfish has been collected from the southern coast. We collected Mytilus coruscus, Meretrix cysoria, Tapes [Amygdalum] philippinarum, Cyclina sinensis, Crassostrea gigas, Tegillarca granosa cark sell, and Saxidomus purpurata, all originated from the southern coast, from the market in every three month from the year 2001 to 2002. But Crassostrea gigas was not available in summer. We determined concentrations of individual 26 PCB congeners with 18 congeners recommended by the USEPA for determining total PCBs and 8 coplanar PCBs we added on. Whole body was homogenized, freeze-dried, Soxhlet extracted, and then eluted through acidic silica gel and Florisil column before analysis. A GC/ECD system was applied for identification and quantification of each PCB congeners. Lipid contents was also determined for each sample batch. The total PCB levels and the lipid contents showed a positive correlation with a correlation coefficent value, r, 0.65. Mytilus coruscus showed the highest annual total PCB levels with 12.9 ng/g dry weight and peak levels in fall with 34.5 ng/g d.w.. Seasonal variation of total PCB levels is relatively large for Mytilus coruscus, Cyclina sinensis, and Tegillarca granosa cark sell, and very small for the other species. Every species showed the lowest total PCB level in winter ranged from 0.56 to 5.51 ng/g d.w.. In the other seasons, total PCB levels were 0.778 to 17.3 ng/g in spring, 2.17 to 9.47 ng/g in summer, and 1.85 to 34.5 ng/g d.w. in fall. IUPAC PCB No. 8, 52, 101, 118, 126, 153, and 138 showed relatively larger contents among 26 congeners we determined. For annual average total PCBs, penta-CBs occupied the largest portion with 32%, and then hexa-CBs with 23%, tetra-CBs with 21%. For 12 coplanar PCB congeners we determined, PCB No. 118 showed the highest content with 4.37 ng/g d.w., and then PCB No. 126 and 77 with 2.65 and 1.94 ng/g d.w. respectively. Although the production and practical use was banned more than 20 years ago in S.Korea, PCBs are still ubiquitous in every environmental media. PCBs are likely to be accumulated to the higher level through food chain, it is necessary to monitor PCBs in the edible shellfish periodically even though the current total PCB levels are low.

Key words: shellfish, polychlorinated biphenyls