Poster or Presentation Title
An Investigation of the Tissue Distribution of Lead in Steelhead Trout
Advisor(s)
John Mango,
Colleen Glor
Michelle Hinchliffe
Subjects
Environment
Abstract
Lead is a metal that interferes with a variety of body processes and is toxic to many organs in humans and other animals. There is a legacy of lead pollution in the waterways of Western New York (WNY). Fish consumption advisories in WNY are partially based on the danger of lead contamination. However, it is not always clear if tissues of the fish that are commonly consumed are as highly contaminated as less commonly consumed tissues. In collaboration with a research team from D’Youville College, we investigated the lead concentration in different tissues of nine steelhead trout caught in the Lower Niagara River. The fish were dissected, and samples of each of the following tissue types were collected: muscle (fillet), liver, gonad, and spleen. Samples were dissolved in nitric acid to release the lead into solution. An Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS) with a graphite furnace module was used to measure lead in the samples to part per million levels. The lead concentrations in each tissue were averaged. Our results show a near to no detection for lead concentrations using our method. While it is encouraging that the fish appear to have very low levels of lead in their tissue, we were not able to conclude that any tissues are less contaminated than others. Future work will focus on contaminants that are expected to be at detectable concentrations based on fish consumption advisory data.
Included in
An Investigation of the Tissue Distribution of Lead in Steelhead Trout
Lead is a metal that interferes with a variety of body processes and is toxic to many organs in humans and other animals. There is a legacy of lead pollution in the waterways of Western New York (WNY). Fish consumption advisories in WNY are partially based on the danger of lead contamination. However, it is not always clear if tissues of the fish that are commonly consumed are as highly contaminated as less commonly consumed tissues. In collaboration with a research team from D’Youville College, we investigated the lead concentration in different tissues of nine steelhead trout caught in the Lower Niagara River. The fish were dissected, and samples of each of the following tissue types were collected: muscle (fillet), liver, gonad, and spleen. Samples were dissolved in nitric acid to release the lead into solution. An Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS) with a graphite furnace module was used to measure lead in the samples to part per million levels. The lead concentrations in each tissue were averaged. Our results show a near to no detection for lead concentrations using our method. While it is encouraging that the fish appear to have very low levels of lead in their tissue, we were not able to conclude that any tissues are less contaminated than others. Future work will focus on contaminants that are expected to be at detectable concentrations based on fish consumption advisory data.