Screening of organochlorines in freshwater fish collected from the Pearl River Delta, People's Republic of China

HCHs, DDTs, and PCBs were analyzed in fish flesh collected from fish ponds in the Pearl River Delta and compared with those from the Mai Po Marshes (a nature reserve) in Hong Kong, which was considered an unpolluted area. The concentrations for these contaminants were <0.01-7.8 ng/g lipid for HCHs, 22.3-381 ng/g lipid for DDTs, and 60-480 ng/g lipid for PCBs. Nevertheless, levels of HCHs and DDTs in fish flesh were lower than the China National Environmental Protection Agency maximum permissible limits set for food-stuffs. As for PCBs, 16% of fish collected from the Pearl River Delta exceeded the US EPA guideline concentration. Copyright © 2004 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.