Congener Profiles of Highly Toxic Polychlorinated Dibenzo-p-dioxins, Dibenzofurans and Dioxin-like Biphenyls in Biota from Sri Lanka

Abstract

Residual pattern of highly toxic dioxins, included with polychlorinated dibenzo -p-dioxins, dibenzofurans and coplanar PCBs, were determined in biota from two locations in western costal area of Sri Lanka. The concentrations of PCDDs and PCDFs in samples were ranged from 0.04 to 4.5 and 0.04 to 1.3 pg/g wet wt. The non-ortho and mono-ortho coplanar PCBs concentrations were ranged 1.3 to 140 and 49 to 6000 pg/g wet wt, respectively. The observed dioxin levels in these samples were less than those are from the industrialized countries whereas within the range of most of other Asian countries. Kelani River fish accumulated 1 to 2 orders of magnitude high dioxin concentrations than fish from the Negombo Lagoon.