Occurrence of Organochlorines Contaminants in Coastal Fish from Sepetiba Bay: Levels and Human Health Repercussions

The aim of this study was to survey levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (pcbs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (pcdfs), and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (pcdds) in white mullet (mugil curema), common snook (centropomus undecimalis), and acoupa weakfish (cynoscion acoupa), collected at sepetiba bay, rio de janeiro, brazil, march-august 2013. pcbs and pcdd/fs were determined by high resolution gas chromatography/high resolution mass spectrometry (hrgc/hrms) as stated by the us epa 1613b, 1668b, and 8290a methods. the concentration of total pcbs ranged from 0.589688 ~ 0.6981629 pg-who-teq/g ww and pcdds/pcdfs ranged from 0.134037 ~ 0.242573 pg-who-teq/g ww. the concentrations of these contaminants on fish species currently appear to fall below critical values, and the dietary consumption of these species did not represent a risk for human health. however, seeking to avoid future problems, systematic monitoring can prevent complications to the environment, marine wildlife and public health impacts.