Polychlorobiphenyls in freshwater fish: a new strategy to set maximum contamination limits

Virginie Desvignes (1) , Aurélie Mahé (1) , Xavier Laffray (2) , Carole Vigreux-Besret (3) , Cyril Feidt (4) , Pierre-Marie Badot (2) , Jean-Luc J.L. Volatier (3) , Gilles Rivière (3)

1 DER - Direction de l'Evaluation des Risques
2 LCE - Laboratoire Chrono-environnement (UMR 6249)
3 ANSES - Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l'alimentation, de l'environnement et du travail
4 URAFPA - Unité de Recherches Animal et Fonctionnalités des Produits Animaux

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are persistent organic pollutants accumulating along the food chain, and particularly in fish. Consequently, the European Commission has set regulatory limits for PCBs in both sea- and freshwater fish. Focusing on freshwater fish, the French Agency for Food Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety has developed a method to determine the areas in France where the consumption of locally caught freshwater fish is not recommended due to PCB contamination. To determine these areas of potential health concern, an existing statistical model of the relationship between the consumption of local fish by freshwater anglers and their PCB body burden is linked to a newly determined critical PCB body burden threshold for the population. The main conclusions of this study are that the consumption of two freshwater fish per week from rivers in the areas of France where the median contamination level in fish is greater than 250 ngg(-1) could lead to some exceedance of the critical body burden threshold.

Mots clés: consumption recommendations; areas of health concern; PCB; consumption recommendations

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Virginie Desvignes, Aurélie Mahé, Xavier Laffray, Carole Vigreux-Besret, Cyril Feidt, et al.. Polychlorobiphenyls in freshwater fish: a new strategy to set maximum contamination limits. Food additives & contaminants. Part A. Chemistry, analysis, control, exposure & risk assessment, 2017, 34 (2), pp.241-247. ⟨10.1080/19440049.2016.1263879⟩. ⟨hal-01605026⟩