Finnish Institute for Verification of the Chemical Weapons Convention (VERIFIN), Department of Chemistry, University of Helsinki, A.I. Virtasen Aukio 1, FI-00014, University of Helsinki, Finland; Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Laboratory Centre, Mustialankatu 3, FI-00790, Helsinki, Finland.
Thünen Institute for Fisheries Ecology, Herwigstraße 31, 27572, Bremerhaven, Germany.
Mar Environ Res. 2020 Dec;162:105160. doi: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2020.105160. Epub 2020 Sep 23.
Recently, sea-dumped chemical weapons (CWs) containing toxic chemical warfare agents (CWAs) have raised international attention. It is well known that CWAs are leaking from corroded munitions causing a risk to the surrounding marine environment, while the impact on marine biota is still unknown. In this study, cod (Gadus morhua) was used as a model species to study the possible bioaccumulation of phenylarsenic CWAs and their negative effects at multiple levels of biological organization on fish living in the vicinity of a major CWs dumpsite in the Bornholm Basin in the Baltic Sea. In total, 14% of the cod muscle samples collected close to the main dumpsite contained trace levels of phenylarsenic CWAs. However, most of the biomarkers measured did not show clear differences between this area compared with a lesser contaminated reference area. On the other hand, significant changes in some biomarkers were observed in individuals containing trace levels of CWA-related chemicals. The results gained in this study have significant importance for environmental risk assessment and for evaluating the risk of CWA contamination for human seafood consumers.
最近，海洋倾倒的化学武器（CWs）中含有有毒化学战剂（CWAs）引起了国际关注。众所周知，由于弹药腐蚀，CWAs 正在泄漏，对周围海洋环境造成了风险，但其对海洋生物群的影响尚不清楚。在这项研究中，鳕鱼（Gadus morhua）被用作模型物种，研究了在波罗的海博恩霍尔姆盆地一个主要 CWs 倾倒场附近生活的鱼类在多个生物组织层面上可能对生物蓄积的苯胂 CWAs 及其负面影响。在靠近主要倾倒场收集的鳕鱼肌肉样本中，总共有 14%的样本含有痕量苯胂 CWAs。然而，与污染程度较低的参照区相比，大多数测量的生物标志物在该区域并未显示出明显差异。另一方面，在含有痕量与 CWA 相关化学物质的个体中，一些生物标志物发生了显著变化。本研究的结果对于环境风险评估和评估 CWA 污染对人类海鲜消费者的风险具有重要意义。
