Exposure of the European seafood consumer to Tributyltin

1. vrije Universiteit amsterdam 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@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 Based 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. 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(95-97.5%ile) 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