Temporal trends and spatial distributions of brominated flame retardants in archived fishes from the Great Lakes

To explore the geographical distribution and temporal trends of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in the Great Lakes, lake trout from Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Ontario and walleye from Lake Erie, collected during the period of 1980-2000, were analyzed. The concentrations of fifteen PBDE congeners and one polybrominated biphenyl (PBB-153) were determined in each fish sample. Lake trout from Lakes Michigan and Ontario had the highest sigmaPBDE concentrations during the years investigated. The sigmaPBDE concentrations in fishes from the five lakes increased exponentially with time, doubling every 3-4 years. The relative proportion of BDEs-47, -99, and -100 compared to BDEs-153 and -154 increased significantly as a function of time. Over the period 1980-2000, the concentrations of PBB-153, which was a component of a flame retardant banned in the 1970s, generally remained the same in these Great Lakes fishes, except for lake trout from Lake Huron, where the PBB-153 concentrations decreased significantly, but slowly.