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How to use secondary data on seafood contamination for probabilistic exposure assessment purposes? Main problems and potential solutions
Sioen, I.; Van Camp, J.; Verdonck, F.A.M.; Van Thuyne, N.; Willems, J.L.; De Henauw, S.W.J. (2007). How to use secondary data on seafood contamination for probabilistic exposure assessment purposes? Main problems and potential solutions. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment 13(3): 632-657
In: Human and Ecological Risk Assessment. Taylor & Francis: Amherst, MA. ISSN 1080-7039; e-ISSN 1549-7860, more
Peer reviewed article  

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Keywords
    Chemical compounds > Organic compounds > Hydrocarbons > Unsaturated hydrocarbons > Aromatic hydrocarbons > PCB
    Chemical elements > Metals > Heavy metals > Mercury
    Databases
    Environmental contamination
    Food > Human food
    Food > Human food > Seafood
    Variability
    Marine/Coastal

Authors  Top 
  • Van Thuyne, N.
  • Willems, J.L., more
  • De Henauw, S.W.J., more

Abstract
    Seafood consumption is related to both favorable health benefits of nutrients and to potential adverse health impacts of chemical contamination. To quantify the magnitude of this dilemma, probabilistic intake assessments can be performed. One step in such a procedure involves the determination of nutrient and contaminant concentrations in seafood for which data need to be collected. This article describes the process of building up a database containing previously published contaminant concentrations in seafood, and defining input distributions characterizing the variability. During the constitution of the database, several problems influencing the comparability of the data were encountered related to (1) sampling plans of the published data; (2) sample handling prior to analysis; (3) analytical methodologies; (4) the format of reporting results; and (5) missing data. Different solutions for these methodological problems have been developed. Contaminant concentrations ranges per gram fresh weight of 2.4-4390.0 ng for mercury, 0.1-5736.6 ng for the sum of indicator PCB, 0.002-115.000 pg TEQ for the sum of all PCBs, 0.002-34.400 pg TEQ for dioxins, and 0.006-126.000 pg TEQ for total of dioxin-like compounds were found. This work confirms that more guidelines are needed to standardize the analytical methodologies to be used and the format for result reporting in order to improve the comparability of data critical to conduct a human intake and risk-benefit assessment.

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