FISH CONSUMPTION AND EXPOSURE TO PERSISTENT ORGANOCHLORINE COMPOUNDS,MERCURY, SELENIUM AND METHYLAMINES AMONG SWEDISH FISHERMEN

Objectives This study assessed dietary habits and exposure to selenium , persistent organochlorine compounds, methylmercury, and methylamines among Swedish fishermen. Methods Two hundred and fifty randomly selec ted subjects from a cohort of 2896 fishermen from the Swedish east coa st (Baltic Sea) and 8477 fishermen from the west coast (Skagerrak and Kattegatt) were interviewed along with 250 referents. Subgroups of fis hermen and referents from different coastal areas were also selected f or blood and urine sampling. Results The interview data showed that fi shermen ate almost twice as much fish as the 250 referents from the ge neral population. The blood levels of mercury were twice as high, and the plasma selenium levels were 10-15% higher in the fishermen than in the referents. There was, however, no difference between the fisherme n's cohorts with respect to these variables. Fishermen from the east c oast ate more fatty fish than fishermen from the west coast, and they also had higher blood levels of persistent organochlorine compounds su ch as polychlorinated biphenyls and polychlorinated dibenzo p-dioxins and furans (present in fatty fish species in the Baltic Sea) than both the westcoast fishermen and the referents. Conclusions A cohort of Sw edish eastcoast fishermen might be a suitable study base for epidemiol ogic studies on the mortality and cancer morbidity associated with die tary exposure to persistent organochlorine compounds.