SEDL / STP / STP921-EB / STP29034S

Bioconcentration of Hydrophobic Chemicals in Fish

Opperhuizen, A
Environmental chemist, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam,

Pages: 12    Published: Jan 1986

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Abstract

Uptake rate constants by fish of di-, tetra-, hexa-, octa-, and decachlorobiphenyls are independent of the solute's hydrophobicity. By combining a two-compartment bioconcentration model with a modified membrane permeation model, simple relationships between uptake rate constants into fish and the solutes' hydrophobicities and molecular configurations are obtained.

The observed lack of uptake by fish of hexabromobenzene, octachloronaphthalene, and octachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin is not due to insufficient exposure concentrations, since the exposure concentrations of these compounds in the continuous flow water saturation system were significantly higher than those of some polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) congeners.

Lack of uptake of these chemicals can be explained by proposing an influence of membrane permeation on the mechanism of bioconcentration. For these compounds, it is shown that size rather than octan-l-ol/water partition coefficients or aqueous solubility causes a lack of uptake by fish.