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Occurrence of Organochlorine Pesticides (OCPs) Residues in Farmed and Wild Fish in Bangladesh and Implications for Human Health

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Abstract

The present study was designed to determine the level of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), including endrin, heptachlor epoxide, heptachlor, methoxychlor, endosulfan, p,p'-DDT, p,p'-DDE and p,p'-DDD, in four fish species from two different sources (wild and farmed) in Bangladesh. Eight different OCP residues were investigated, of which seven were detected in all the fish samples. The OCP concentrations varied widely within each species, ranging from below the limit of detection to 162 ng/g-ww in wild Heteropneustes fossilis. Among the contaminants, endosulfan was the most abundant OCP. It ranged from 3.94 to 98.4 ng/g-ww. The overall mean level of ΣOCPs in wild fish were significantly higher than the farmed fish (p < 0.05). The highest estimated daily intake (EDI) value was for endosulfan (102.66 ng/g-bw/day), observed in wild Labeo calbasu, whereas the lowest was for p,p'-DDD (0.02 ng/g-bw/day), observed in wild Anabas testudineus. Noncancerous risk estimates revealed that hazard index (HI) values for all fishes except wild L. calbasu were less than 1, which is below the level of concern. HI for wild L. calbasu was 1.1, which indicates a low level of risk for human consumption. Incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) was also calculated; most of the OCP residues had ILCR values below 10−6 for both wild and farmed species except for p,p'-DDE in wild H. fossilis, which had an ILCR value of 4.0 × 10–5. In Bangladesh, no regulations for OCP use or guidelines for maximum admissible concentration are in place. Thus, the findings of the present study will be a baseline for regulatory authorities for developing and implementing regulations and guidelines.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The study was funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) of the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. The authors acknowledge the laboratory and instrumental supports of Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR).

Funding

The funded was provided by Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (Grant No. 39.00.0000.009.14.005.2019/ES-16/331).

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MH-A-M: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Data Curation, Writing—Original Draft, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition. SAT: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data Curation, Writing—Original Draft. BP, MAZ: Data Curation, Writing—Review & Editing, Visualization, Project administration. MHK, SA: Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Visualization. SCM, AH: Software, Writing—Review & Editing, Visualization.

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Correspondence to Md. Habibullah-Al-Mamun.

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Habibullah-Al-Mamun, M., Tanima, S.A., Paul, B. et al. Occurrence of Organochlorine Pesticides (OCPs) Residues in Farmed and Wild Fish in Bangladesh and Implications for Human Health. Expo Health 15, 425–437 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12403-022-00501-4

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