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REFERENCE VALUES FOR FISH EXPOSURE TO PAH CONTAMINANTS: COMPARISON OF OHIO AND THE MID-ATLANTIC REGION
Citation:
Cormier, S M. AND E.L C. Lin. REFERENCE VALUES FOR FISH EXPOSURE TO PAH CONTAMINANTS: COMPARISON OF OHIO AND THE MID-ATLANTIC REGION. Ecotoxicology 15(2):111-120, (2005).
Impact/Purpose:
The purpose of this research project is to provide methods, tools and guidance to Regions, States and Tribes to support the TMDL program. This research will investigate new measurement methods and models to link stressors to biological responses and will use existing data and knowledge to develop strategies to determine the causes of biological impairment in rivers and streams. Research will be performed across multiple spatial scales, site, subwatershed, watershed, basin, ecoregion and regional/state.
Description:
Reference values for exposure of wildlife to contaminants are needed to cost effectively determine if a site is contaminated and to rank sites that are above background levels. Epidemiological techniques originally developed for clinical chemistry and for determining exposures to humans in the workplace have been adapted to estimate background levels of exposure and used to evaluate exposures of fish to polyaromatic hydrocarbons in Ohio streams. The method for deriving estimates of background levels were described using bile metabolite data collected from fish sampled from randomly selected first to third-order streams and using fish sampled from Ohip EPA sites identified as least impacted based on measurements of habitat and fish assemblage. The calculated reference values for exposure to PAH were not significantly different for the two sampling designs. However, it is uncertain if the values derived in the Ohio studies can be applied to other regions because the data set may not be representative of the exposures in streams throughout the United States.
In this study, we calculated reference exposure values for BAP- and NAPH-type bile metabolites for the mid-Atlantic. Levels of PAH metabolites increase with increasing exposure. PAH, including benzo(a)pyrene (BAP) and naththlene (NAPH) were selected for this study because they have been associated with neoplasia in fish and humans. Reference values estimated for white sucker and common carp for the mid-Atlantic region were compared to those found for Ohio to ascertain if exposure levels were similar in the mid-West and the mid-Atlantic. Additionally, reference values were generated for two more species, hog sucker and rock bass, so that streams without white sucker or common carp could also be assessed. The objective of the study was to characterize metabolite levels associated with background exposure of PAH associated with an industrialized nation that could be applied to a larger geographic area.