Ciência 2010 Organotin levels in seafood from Portuguese markets and the risk for consumers Organotin levels in seafood from Portuguese markets and the risk for consumers Miguel M. Santos CIMAR/CIIMAR blog.terramater.pt

Ciência 2010 Co-authors: P. Enes M.A. Reis-Henriques J. Kuballa L. Filipe C. Castro M.N. Vieira

Ciência 2010 Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are suspected to induce several perturbations such as reproductive abnormalities, cancer, obesity, etc. Humans are exposed to many of these chemicals through different exposure routes. Background

Ciência 2010 Organotins (OTs) Organotins were introduced in the late 1960s as biocides in antifouling paints Tributyltin (TBT) and other OTs accumulate through the food chain, resulting in the occurrence of OTs in seafood products

Ciência 2010 For the majority of the European countries no data or only very limit information was available on the levels of OTs in seafood (Belfroid et al., 2000). Within the scope of an EU project “Sources, consumer exposure and risks of organotin contamination in seafood, acronym OT-SAFE” the levels of several OTs were evaluated in the most relevant seafood products for Portuguese consumers.

Ciência 2010 Material and methods All the selected species were sampled according to an adaptation ES guideline ( The most important seafood products consumed in Portugal were selected to investigate the levels of OTs in edible parts Tributyltin, dibutyltin, monobutyltin, triphenyltin, tetrabutyltin, Tricyclohexyltin, monooctyltin and dioctyltin

Ciência 2010 The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) scientific panel has re- assessed the health risk associated with the intake of organotin contaminated foodstuff. The panel final conclusion was to derive a Tolerable daily intake (TDI) of 0.25 µg/Kg body weight/day for the sum of TBT, DBT, TPT and DOT (European Food Safety Authority, 2004). Immunotoxicity, genotoxicity, carcinotoxicity and neurotoxicity Tolerable Average Residue Levels (TARL) which can be defined as the daily amount of TBT in seafood that is tolerable for the average consumer (60 Kg weight) (Kannan and Falandysz, 1993; Belfroid et al., 2000; Santos et al., 2009).

Ciência 2010 Significant differences in the content of OTs among groups were evaluated by a one-way ANOVA with a multiple comparison test (Student–Newman–Keuls), using the software Statistica 5.0. Sea- sonal differences in the levels of OTs were tested by the Wilcoxon Matched Pairs Test, whereas significant differences between OTs levels in seafood collected along the Portuguese coast and im- ported from other sources were tested by the Mann–Whitney U Test.

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If we calculated the mean TBT+DBT content in our seafood samples taking into consideration the relative importance of each analyzed group (based on the internal supply data), we will reach a mean concentration of TBT+DBT of 13 ng/g wet weight, which is approximately 7-fold lower than the TARL derived for Portugal. Four bivalve samples exceeded the TARL.

Ciência 2010 Maire et al., 2008 It has recently been demonstrated that TBT and TPT, at extremely low levels (1-30 nM) modulates several nuclear receptors such as the retinoid X receptors (RXRs), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) (Kanayama et al., 2005; Grün et al., 2006; Castro et al., 2007).

Ciência 2010 AB Zuo et al., 2010Wu et al., 2009

Ciência 2010 Overall, the present study contributes to a better understanding of the health risk of southern European consumers associated with OTs intake from seafood. While the data presented here indicates that the average consumer is not exposed to OTs levels in seafood above the TARL, four bivalve samples exceeded the TARL and therefore higher bivalve consumer groups may be at risk.

Ciência 2010 Obrigado!

Ciência 2010