Dietary exposure to non-dioxin-like PCBs of the Hong Kong adult population from a total diet study

Dietary exposure of Hong Kong adults to the sum of the six indicator PCBs (Σ₆ PCBs; PCB 28, 52, 101, 138, 153, and 180) was estimated in this study using the Total Diet Study (TDS) approach. Seventy one commonly-consumed food items of animal origin were sampled in four seasons and prepared as consumed in 2010–2011. The results showed that the main dietary source of Σ₆ PCBs to the adult population was ‘fish, seafood and their products’ which accounted for 84.3% of the total exposure. About 50% of the total exposure was contributed by four fish species: salmon (cooked salmon and salmon sashimi, 19.9%), mandarin fish (14.7%), pomfret fish (8.5%) and yellow croaker (7.5%). Salmon was found to contain the highest mean level of Σ₆ PCBs of 5.7 ng g^?1 fresh weight at upper bound estimation, ranging from 4.4 to 6.3 ng g^?1. The lower bound and upper bound exposure estimates of ?₆ PCBs to the average consumer of the population were found to be 0.68 and 1.38 ng kg^?1 body weight day^?1 respectively while for high consumers, the lower bound and upper bound exposure estimates were 3.08 and 3.84 ng kg^?1 body weight day^?1 respectively. In addition, the dietary exposures to individual indicator PCB congeners were also estimated.