Tris(4-chlorophenyl)methane and tris(4-chlorophenyl)methanol in sediment and food webs from the Baltic south coast

Tris(4-chlorophenyl)methane (TCPM-H) and tris(4-chlorophenyl)methanol (TCPM-OH)were identified and quantified in fishes (4.1-37 ng/g lipids), fish-eating birds (120-630 ng/g), and marine mammals (13-31 ng/g) from the southern part of the Baltic Sea as well as in the egg and tissues of white-tailed sea eagles from the Baltic coastal (<13-130000 ng/g) and inland (<1-1500 ng/g) breeding areas in Poland. TCPM-H and TCPM-OH were absent (<0.3 ng/g lipids) in a lower food web organism such as Baltic plankton, blue mussel, and crab and in marine and freshwater surface sediment (<0.3 ng/g dry wt). Both compounds in addition to a suite of organochlorine substances were determined using a nondestructive method for extraction and cleanup step with dialysis throughout a semipermeable polyethylene membrane (SPM) and further fractionation of the dialysate aliquot on a Florisil gel column with final separation, indentification, and quantification via capillary gas chromatography and low resolution mass spectrometry (HRGC/LRMS). TCPM-H and TCPM-OH quantified in higher food web organisms such as white-tailed sea eagles and harbor porpoise correlated (p < 0.000001) with DDTs (p,p'-DDT, p,p'-DDD, p,p'-DDE, and p,p'-DDMU) content. There was no correlation (p > 0.05) between TCPM-H/OH and DDTs in black cormorant and also in 11 species of fish, while a positive (p < 0.05) relationship was found for a selected group of fish including flounder, perch, lamprey, and three-spined stickleback. Similar to fish, marine mammals (such as harbor porpoise), black cormorants, and white-tailed sea eagles apparently bioaccumulate and biomagnify TCPM-H/OH. Both TCPM-H and TCPM-OH are enriched in a marine food web to a higher degree than DDTs, and both these compounds seem to be much more persistent contaminants under environmental conditions than DDT and its analogues.