BROMOCYCLEN CONTAMINATION OF SURFACE-WATER, WASTE-WATER AND FISH FROMNORTHERN GERMANY, AND GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHIC CHIRAL SEPARATION

The concentrations of bromocyclen were determined in the water and mus cle tissue of trout and bream from the river Stor (northern Germany), to locate the source of this contaminant. The concentrations in water varied between n.d, and 261 pg/L, while in the fish samples concentrat ions between 0.01 and 0.24 mg/kg fat were determined. In addition, rem arkably high concentrations of bromocyclen were found in waste water f rom sewage plants discharging into the river Stor, and at the city of Hamburg. Sewage plants can be, therefore, assumed to be the main sourc e of bromocyclen contamination. This is the first report about the con tamination of river water and waste water with bromocyclen. Determinat ion by chiral capillary gas chromatography using a modified cyclodextr in phase showed no significant enantiomeric excess in the water sample s, but a preferential degradation of (+)-bromocyclen in the fish muscl e tissue of breams. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.