Arsenic Bioaccumulation in Freshwater Fishes

The arsenic ambient water quality criterion (AWQC) for protection of human health via ingestion of aquatic organisms is currently 0.14 μ g/L. This AWQC is derived using a bioconcentration factor (BCF) of 44, which is a consumption-weighted average based on two data points for oysters and fish that w...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Human and ecological risk assessment 2006-10, Vol.12 (5), p.904-923
Main Authors: Williams, L., Schoof, R. A., Yager, J. W., Goodrich-Mahoney, J. W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ambient water quality criteria
Arsenic
bioaccumulation
Changes
Electric power
Fish
fish consumption
Freshwater
Health hazards
Organisms
Pisces
River basins
Surface water
Tissues
Trout
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Summary:The arsenic ambient water quality criterion (AWQC) for protection of human health via ingestion of aquatic organisms is currently 0.14 μ g/L. This AWQC is derived using a bioconcentration factor (BCF) of 44, which is a consumption-weighted average based on two data points for oysters and fish that was proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1980 for broad application to freshwater and marine environments. This BCF is based on the assumption that bioaccumulation is a simple linear function of the exposure concentration. In the nearly quarter of a century since this BCF was promulgated, there have been additions to the arsenic bioaccumulation database and a broader scientific understanding of bioaccumulation mechanisms and how they can be applied to estimating tissue concentrations in aquatic organisms. From this database, we identified 12 studies of arsenic bioaccumulation in freshwater fishes in order to explore differences in laboratory-generated BCFs and field-generated bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) and to assess their relationship to arsenic concentrations in water. Our analysis indicates that arsenic concentrations in tissue and arsenic BAFs may be power functions of arsenic concentration in water. A power function indicates that the highest BCF values may occur at low background levels and may decrease as environmental concentrations increase above the ambient range.
ISSN:1080-7039
1549-7860
DOI:10.1080/10807030600826821