Organochlorine Pesticides in Muscle of Varieties of Frozen Fish in Nigeria

Accumulation of toxic residues in water body affects all the living organism, and may possibly pose a high risk in organism that can accumulate and retain these toxic substances in their body such as the fishes. Fish consumption and demand is high that the local supply in Nigeria don’t meet up, this gap is bridged by frozen fishes which are majorly imported into the country. This study looked into five (5) commonly sold frozen fishes sold in Nigeria, to determine the level of organochlorine pesticide residues in them, which will indicate the kind of water body they are coming from and its potential risk to human life. GC-ECD with GC mass spectrometric (GC/MS) was used in the analysis and a total of fifteen OCPs were detected in all the five fish samples. Hexachlorobenzene, β-HCH, δ-HCH, α-HCH, 𠛾-HCH(lindane) were detected. α-HCH shows the highest wet concentration range of the HCH isomers with 1.10mg/kg in Herring fish sample to 4.00mg/kg in Atlantic mackerel. Endosulfan pesticide residue the highest concentration among all the OCPs quantified with a range of 3.16-4.18mg/kg. 12 OCPs were detected in sample F1 and F5 each and 14 were detected in F2, F3 and F4 each. The DDTs present suggest a possible recent use, which might raise a concern because these fishes are eaten in Nigeria almost every day and thus suggest a keen assessment of imported fishes into Nigeria, because of the bioaccumulation of pesticide residue in fishes thereby extending the effect to human health.