PCDD, PCDF, and Dioxin- like PCB in Herring Gull Eggs from the North Sea and Baltic Sea: Levels, Patterns and, Temporal Trends
Schröter- Kermani, Christa; Schmolz, Erik; Herrmann, Thomas; Päpke, Olaf
Organohalogen compounds 67 (2005), 1295-1299
Kurzfassung
Seabirds are well studied important bioindicators for the contamination of marine environments. As top predators, they accumulate persistent chemicals, which can be found in high concentrations in their eggs. For this, PCDDs, PCDFs, and dioxin-like PCBs have been monitored in several avian species. However, the recent implementation of new TEF and TEQ concepts with an inclusion of dioxin-like PCBs and an introduction of TEFs not only for humans but also for fish and birds together with a refined and improved analytical methodology raises the need for comparable data especially from former years. In the framework of the German Environmental Specimen Bank eggs of herring gulls are collected since 1988 from two North Sea islands and since 1993 from one Baltic Sea island. Routinely performed analyses of these samples for a fixed set of substances (including several POPs like DDT, HCH, and HCB) yielded significant differences in contamination between North Sea and Baltic Sea samples.
Here, we present data for PCDDs, PCDFs, and dioxin-like PCBs in archived herring gull egg samples in order to critically compare bird and human TEQs and to evaluate the influence of the Elbe flood in 2002 on contamination of North Sea sampling sites.