Polychlorinated biphenyls in sediments and fish species from the Murchison Bay of Lake Victoria, Uganda
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Date
2014
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Science of the Total Environment
Abstract
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were determined in sediments and two fish species collected from the
Murchison Bay in Lake Victoria, using high resolution gas chromatography coupled to a high resolution mass spectrometer.
Total PCB concentrations (Σ18PCBs) varied widely with mean values ranging from 777 to 4325 pg g−1
dry weight (dw) for sediments and 80 to 779 pg g−1 wet weight (ww) for fish. The PCB levels in the sediments
were significantly higher at the station closest to Nakivubo channel, presumably due to effluents discharged by
the channel, which may contain domestically produced commercial PCB mixtures. For fish, the concentrations
in Nile perch (Lates niloticus) were significantly greater than those in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) at all
study stations, possibly due to dietary differences among species. World Health Organization-toxic equivalents
(WHO2005-TEQs) for the dioxin-like PCBs were 0.04–0.64 pg g−1 dw and 0.01–0.39 pg g−1 ww for sediments
and fish, respectively. The non-ortho PCBs exhibited the highest contribution to the Σ12TEQs (N75%) compared
to themono-ortho PCBs in both fish species. The TEQs in the present study were lower than many reported worldwide
in literature for fish and were within the permissible level recommended by the European Commission,
implying that the fish did not pose health hazards related to PCBs to the consumers.
Description
Keywords
Polychlorinated biphenyls, Sediments, Fish, Murchison Bay, Lake Victoria
Citation
Ssebugere, P., Sillanpää, M., Wang, P., Li, Y., Kiremire, BT, Kasozi, GN, ... & Jiang, G. (2014). Polychlorinated biphenyls in sediments and fish species from the Murchison Bay of Lake Victoria, Uganda. Science of the Total Environment , 482 , 349-357. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.03.009