Exposure of the European seafood consumer to Tributyltin

1
Instituut voor Milieuvraagstukken / Institute
for Environmental Studies IVM
Exposure of the European seafood consumer to
Tributyltin
Willemsen, FH Wegener, JW Institute for
Environmental Studies, Amsterdam, The
Netherlands e-mail frank.willemsen_at_ivm.vu.nl
A European Commission Research Project
(QLK1-2001-01437) Quality of life and management
of living resources
The OT-SAFE Project Aim to assess the risk of
TBT in seafood for European consumers Sampling Ba
sed on expected contribution related to species,
taxonomic groups and seafood consumption data
Results Counrty-specific average TBT levels are
presented below. If a group of animals was not
represented in the sampling, averages from main
countries of import or general averages were
used.
TBT levels Fish Moll. Ceph. Crus.
Country ng/g ng/g ng/g ng/g
BE 4.8 19.0 8.9 96.1
FR 11.0 21.8 8.9 45.9
DE 6.9 13.7 8.9 96.1
GR 58.3 13.6 6.4 45.9
IT 17.0 160.4 8.9 45.9
HU 4.2 41.9 8.9 45.9
NL 5.8 13.7 8.9 96.1
PT 8.3 130.4 7.9 2.0
SP 14.4 26.1 13.2 1.7
SE 13.5 41.9 8.9 45.9
UK 7.9 21.4 8.9 45.9
Country No. of samples
Belgium 11
France 16
Germany 26
Greece 37
Hungary 7
Italy 45
Netherlands 11
Portugal 25
Spain 32
Sweden 9
United Kingdom 22
As can be seen from the table, the general
picture is one with fairly low levels of TBT
especially in Northern Europe. There are however,
some countries where there might be some concern.
The Italian average for molluscs for example,
means that consumption of 93 grams would lead to
an exposure at 100 of the TDI for a 60 kg
person. Combining the TBT-levels with the
available consumption figures shows that the
level to which general populations whole appear
to be exposed ranges from 0.1 - 13.2 of the
TDI. For those countries where there is data on
actual consumers this range goes up to 0.5-33.
Data on high consumers(95-97.5ile) was only
available for four countries These high consumers
are exposed to 1.5-33 on the basis of the
single group of species. Their actual intake may
be higher if they consume other types of seafood
as well
Consumption figures Accurate and specific data on
seafood consumption are difficult to obtain. Best
available data ranged from consumption surveys
(short term, separate species) for some
countries, to internal supply data for others.
Some datasets also distinguished a group of high
consumers.

• Conclusions
• Seafood is still a major exposure route of TBT
• More acurate data on seafood consumption is
  crucial to identifying groups at risk
• If a group TDI were to be set for organotins,
  large groups of Europeans would fill up this
  TDI for up to 50 with seafood alone