Aquaculture contributes a higher proportion to children's daily intake of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons than to that of adults in eastern China

Abstract

Asia, especially China, shares a large proportion of global aquaculture production. Consequently, aquaculture food quality and safety with regard to contamination with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were assessed in eastern China, which is a typical area of aquaculture. The concentrations of ∑PAHs ranged from 42 to 600 ng/g dry weight in a variety of dietary species from farm ponds in eastern China. With regard to the total daily intake of PAHs estimated based on the literature data on urinary hydroxy-PAHs in this region, there was a significant difference between children (mean = 130 ng/kg/d) and adults (mean = 600 ng/kg/d for pregnant women, 1700 ng/kg/d for women, and 2300 ng/kg/d for men). Furthermore, we provided a novel estimation on the fractional contribution of aquatic products to the overall human daily intake of PAHs. Specifically, the contribution of aquatic foodstuffs to total daily intake for children and pregnant women reached more than 50 and 10%, respectively, indicating that children and pregnant women were more vulnerable to the PAH-contaminated aquaculture foodstuffs. Meanwhile, no significant region-specific pattern between different provinces was observed. In summary, these results suggested that sensitive subpopulations were vulnerable to exposure to PAH-contaminated aquatic products, and it is necessary to pay attention to the dietary intake pattern of these sensitive subgroups in eastern China. Environ Toxicol Chem 2019;00:1–9.