title: Polychlorobiphenyls in freshwater fish: a new strategy to set maximum contamination limits.
abstract: 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 ng g-1could lead to some exceedance of the critical body burden threshold.
authors.affiliation: a French Agency for Food , Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety , Maisons-Alfort Cedex , France.
authors.forename: Virginie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Desvignes
authors.affiliation: a French Agency for Food , Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety , Maisons-Alfort Cedex , France.
authors.forename: Aurélie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mahé
authors.affiliation: b Chrono-Environment Lab , UMR 6249 CNRS-University of Franche-Comté usc INRA , Besançon , France.
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Laffray
authors.affiliation: a French Agency for Food , Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety , Maisons-Alfort Cedex , France.
authors.forename: Carole
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vigreux-Besret
authors.affiliation: c Université de Lorraine, Unité de Recherche Animal et Fonctionnalités des Produits Animaux , Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy , France.
authors.forename: Cyril
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Feidt
authors.affiliation: b Chrono-Environment Lab , UMR 6249 CNRS-University of Franche-Comté usc INRA , Besançon , France.
authors.forename: Pierre-Marie
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Badot
authors.affiliation: a French Agency for Food , Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety , Maisons-Alfort Cedex , France.
authors.forename: Jean-Luc
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Volatier
authors.affiliation: a French Agency for Food , Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety , Maisons-Alfort Cedex , France.
authors.forename: Gilles
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rivière
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005399:Fishes; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D005618:Fresh Water / Q000737:chemistry*; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls / Q000032:analysis*; D012044:Regression Analysis
chemical_list: D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls
keywords: PCB; areas of health concern; consumption recommendations