Metals and Organochlorine Compounds in Fish from Latvian Lakes

Organochlorines and metals have high toxicity and worldwide distribution in the aquatic environment. They are known to accumulate in sediments. In mollusks and fishes, they are bioconcentrated, even when released in minute quantities into the environment. This is important, as these chemicals have an adverse impact on species diversity, and accumulate in humans when seafood is consumed (Jaffar et al. 1988; Ruiter 1995). The nature and extent of accumulation and impact of persistent xenobiotics in water bodies depend on their sources; i.e. whether they are from industry, agricultural activities, transboundary transport with air masses (Sharif et al. 1993), geochemically determined elevated c…