Dietary exposure to DDTs in two coastal cities and an inland city in China

Dietary intakes of dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethanes (DDTs) of residents from two coastal cities: Guiyu (GY) and Taizhou (TZ) and one inland city: Lin'an (HZ) were investigated by collecting 73 food items (divided into 9 food groups). The oriental weatherfish and white crab (both from TZ) contained higher DDTs (112. ±. 1.81 and 70.1. ±. 1.81. ng/g wet wt, respectively) than the maximum admissible concentration (50. ng/g wet wt) set by the European Union for human consumption. Furthermore, 40% of TZ seafood, 56% of GY and 30% of HZ freshwater fish exceeded the guideline for subsistence fish eaters for DDTs (14.4. ng/g wet wt) defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). The estimated daily intakes of DDTs for TZ (52.1. ng/kg bw/day) and GZ (31.5. ng/kg bw/day) were significantly higher than for HZ (13.0. ng/g wet wt, p. <. 0.05), these values were below the US EPA oral reference dose (500. ng/kg bw/day) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization provisional tolerable daily intake (10,000. ng/kg bw/day).