Human health risk of polychlorinated biphenyls and organochlorine pesticides resulting from seafood consumption in South Korea, 2005–2007

Organochlorines (OCs) such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), were measured in 26 species of seafood commonly consumed by the Korean population. PCBs and DDTs were the predominant contaminants with concentrations from 0.2 to 41 ng/g wet wt and from < 0.04 to 37 ng/g wet wt, while CHLs (<0.01–1.9 ng/g wet wt), HCB (<0.004–1.0 ng/g wet wt), and HCHs (<0.02–0.4 ng/g wet wt) were 1–2 orders of magnitude lower than the concentrations of PCBs and DDTs. The dominant PCBs and OCPs were PCB 153, 187, 138, and 118 and p,p′-DDE, HCB, p,p′-DDT, and p,p′-DDD, respectively. Dietary intakes of OCs for the general population, males, and females were estimated as 69, 78, and 60 ng/kg body weight/week, respectively. Mackerel, tuna, and hairtail were the main contributors to the dietary intakes of OCs. Among the eight age groups investigated, infants <2 years had the highest dietary exposure to OCs. Hazard ratios of non-cancer risk of all of the OCs were less than one, while the lifetime cancer risks of PCBs and DDTs were all greater than unity for Korean populations.