Food web-specific biomagnification of persistent organic pollutants.
Substances that accumulate to hazardous levels in living organisms pose environmental and human-health risks, which governments seek to reduce or eliminate. Regulatory authorities identify bioaccumulative substances as hydrophobic, fat-soluble chemicals having high octanol-water partition coefficients (K(OW))(>/=100,000). Here we show that poorly metabolizable, moderately hydrophobic substances with a K(OW) between 100 and 100,000, which do not biomagnify (that is, increase in chemical concentration in organisms with increasing trophic level) in aquatic food webs, can biomagnify to a high degree in food webs containing air-breathing animals (including humans) because of their high octanol-air partition coefficient (K(OA)) and corresponding low rate of respiratory elimination to air. These low K(OW)-high K(OA) chemicals, representing a third of organic chemicals in commercial use, constitute an unidentified class of potentially bioaccumulative substances that require regulatory assessment to prevent possible ecosystem and human-health consequences.
Kelly
Barry C
BC
School of Resource and Environmental Management, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, Canada.
Ikonomou
Michael G
MG
Blair
Joel D
JD
Morin
Anne E
AE
Gobas
Frank A P C
FA
D000818:Animals; D002170:Canada; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D005399:Fishes / Q000378:metabolism; D020387:Food Chain; D006801:Humans; D006838:Hydrocarbons / Q000032:analysis* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D007448:Invertebrates / Q000378:metabolism*; D008322:Mammals / Q000378:metabolism*; D012119:Respiration; D014714:Vertebrates / Q000378:metabolism*
D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D006838:Hydrocarbons