Concentrations of selected persistent organochlorine contaminants in store-bought foods from northern Alaska.
OBJECTIVE
We address marine and terrestrial mammal blubber, liver, muscle, kidney, heart, tongue, maktak and maktaaq (epidermis and blubber from bowhead, beluga whales, respectively), and fish muscle and livers, as commonly consumed tissues in subsistence communities across northern Alaska in the context of organochlorine (OC) contamination of store-bought foods. Human exposure to contaminants from biota, as part of a subsistence diet, has been superficially evaluated in numerous studies (focused on liver and blubber), but are limited in the type of tissues analyzed, and rarely consider the contaminants in the alternatives (i.e., store-bought foods).


METHODS
Concentrations from published literature on selected persistent organochlorine contaminants (OCs) in eight tissues of the bowhead whale and other biota (1) were compared to store-bought foods evaluated in this study.


RESULTS
As expected, store-bought foods had lower concentrations of OCs than some tissues of the marine mammals (especially blubber, maktak, and maktaaq). However, blubber is rarely eaten alone and should not be used to give consumption advice unless considered as a portion of the food item (i.e., maktak). This study indicates that the store-bought food alternatives have detectable OC concentrations (e.g., < 0.01 to 22.5 ng/g w.w. for hexachlorobenzene) and, in many cases, have greater OC concentrations than some subsistence food items. Many wildlife tissues had OC concentrations similar to those quantified in local store-bought food.


CONCLUSIONS
Switching from the traditional diet to western store-bought foods will not always reduce exposure to OCs. However, raw blubber-based products are clearly more contaminated with OCs due to lipid content. A detailed profile of traditional/country foods and western foods consumed by subsistence communities of northern Alaska is required to address chronic exposure in more detail for the diverse sources of foods (subsistence use and commercially available) and the widely varying concentrations of contaminants reported therein. This should be combined with biomonitoring people dependent upon subsistence foods. Further assessment of essential and non-essential elements, emerging contaminants (e.g. brominated flame retardants), etc. should be conducted in order to improve our understanding of the differences and similarities between wildlife and store-bought foods.
O'Hara
Todd M
TM
Department of Wildlife Management, North Slope Borough, Barrow, Alaska, USA. fftmo@uaf.edu
Hoekstra
Paul F
PF
Hanns
Cyd
C
Backus
Sean M
SM
Muir
Derek C G
DC
D000413:Alaska; D000818:Animals; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000032:analysis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005523:Food Supply / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D006843:Hydrocarbons, Chlorinated / Q000032:analysis*; D008460:Meat / Q000032:analysis* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017747:Seafood / Q000032:analysis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
D006843:Hydrocarbons, Chlorinated