Health risk assessment of the intake of butyltin and phenyltin compounds from fish and seafood in Taiwanese population

Overview

Lee and colleagues measured six organotin compounds in 200 Taiwanese fishery products and estimated dietary noncarcinogenic risk for Taiwanese consumers. The analytes were tributyltin, dibutyltin, monobutyltin, monophenyltin, diphenyltin, and triphenyltin, reported separately as butyltins and phenyltins. These are organotin species, not total tin or inorganic tin occurrence values.

Key numbers

Samples came from the 2011 fishery trade in Taiwan and were provided by the Fisheries Agency Council of Agriculture from 25 fishery markets. Category counts were freshwater fish n = 64, saltwater fish n = 80, crustaceans n = 16, bivalves/univalves n = 20, and ammonites n = 20.

Table 1 reports six organotin species in mg/kg fresh weight, wet basis; values are category means with ranges in parentheses, and <MDL values are shown as ND:

Table 2 reports organotin sums in mg/kg dry weight. Sum BTs/Sum PTs were freshwater fish 0.679 (0.070-2.96) / 0.924 (0.045-6.14), saltwater fish 0.882 (0.049-7.07) / 0.871 (0.045-8.49), crustaceans 0.402 (0.049-2.59) / 1.83 (0.057-9.38), bivalves/univalves 0.776 (0.070-2.55) / 3.43 (0.289-9.73), and ammonites 0.484 (0.049-3.27) / 1.86 (0.045-8.61).

The text states that the highest average wet-weight butyltin value was 0.251 mg kg−1 fresh weight in saltwater fish, followed by >0.176 mg kg−1 in freshwater fish, >0.126 mg kg−1 in crustaceans, >0.109 mg kg−1 in bivalves/univalves, and >0.080 mg kg−1 in ammonites. For phenyltins, the highest average wet-weight value was 0.920 mg kg−1 fresh weight in crustaceans, followed by >0.448 mg kg−1 in bivalves/univalves, >0.300 mg kg−1 in ammonites, >0.242 mg kg−1 in freshwater fish, and >0.235 mg kg−1 in saltwater fish.

The paper reports Taiwanese tolerable average residue levels (TARLs) for TBT + DBT + TPT by age group as 307, 322, 241, 563, 788, 295, and 342 ng g−1 for ages 0-3, 3-6, 6-12, 12-16, 16-18, 19-65, and >65 years, respectively. Figure 3/text state that 62 of 200 samples (31%) were over Taiwan TARLs, including 8 of 16 crustacean samples (50%), 26 of 80 saltwater fish samples (32.5%), and 17 of 64 freshwater fish samples (26.6%).

Table 3 reports average daily dose totals for TBT + DBT + TPT as ng/kg/day: age 0-3 total 0.31, 3-6 total 0.42, 6-12 male 0.29, 6-12 female 0.26, 12-16 male 0.18, 12-16 female 0.13, 16-18 male 0.09, 16-18 female 0.07, 19-65 male 0.25, 19-65 female 0.30, >65 male 0.19, and >65 female 0.15.

Table 4 reports noncarcinogenic hazard index (HI) for organic tin ingestion from Taiwanese fishery products. Mean/95th percentile HI values were 1.24/4.19 for age 0-3, 1.68/4.78 for 3-6, 1.16/3.54 for 6-12 males, 1.04/3.19 for 6-12 females, 1/3.10 for 19-65 males, and 1.2/2.74 for 19-65 females. The text states that average HIs were above 1 for people under 12 years old and that 95% upper confidence limits were over 1 for all groups except 16-18 females.

Methods (brief)

Whole fish or seafood samples were stored at 4 °C, dissected on arrival, cut, freeze-dried, homogenized, and stored at −20 °C. Organotins were extracted from 0.5 g dry weight sample with tripropyltin chloride surrogate standard, tropolone-methane, and HCl, then derivatized with hexylmagnesium bromide Grignard reagent and analyzed by GC/MS on a Hewlett-Packard 5890 series II GC/5972A MS with a DB-5MS capillary column. Six standards were used: butyltin trichloride, dibutyltin dichloride, tributyltin chloride, phenyltin trichloride, diphenyltin dichloride, and triphenyltin chloride. ERM-CE477 mussel tissue validation gave average recoveries of TBT 94%, DBT 97%, and MBT 105%; six organotin species recoveries ranged from 60 to 140%. Method detection limits in fresh weight were TBT 8 ng g−1, DBT 7 ng g−1, MBT 4 ng g−1, MPT 4 ng g−1, DPT 8 ng g−1, and TPT 6 ng g−1.

Implications

This source contributes direct Taiwanese fish and seafood organotin occurrence data across freshwater fish, saltwater fish, crustaceans, bivalves/univalves, and cephalopod-type seafood. It is especially useful because it reports wet-basis and dry-weight organotin species separately and includes age-stratified exposure/Hazard Index calculations. Downstream routing should keep butyltins, phenyltins, and individual species such as TBT, DBT, MBT, MPT, DPT, and TPT distinct from total tin (Sn).

Update history

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