FREE-LIVING ANIMALS AS INDICATORS OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATION

The presence of Cs-137, Cs-134 and K-40 was determined in deer meat, and the presence of PCB congeners Nos. 28, 49, 52, 101, 138, 153 and 180 as well as HCB, alpha-, beta- and gamma-HCH and the DDE metabolite p,p'-DDE was determined in the muscle flesh of foxes. The deer were from 1989 and 1991 and the foxes from 1991. The results were compared to published data from previous years, (radionuclides in deer from 1986-1988 and PCBs in Foxes in 1983 and 1987). The concentrations of Cs-137 and Cs-134 in deer meat were found to be about as low as had been measured in 1988, before the reactor accident in Tschernobyl, USSR. The average concentration of Cs-137 was found to be only 3.8 Bq per Kg muscle in 1989 and 2.1 Bq per Kg in 1990. The corresponding values for Cs-134 were 0.6 and 0.3 Bq/Kg, respectively. By comparison, the average concentration of the naturally occurring K-40 was determined to be 110 Bq/Kg muscle. Examination of muscle flesh from foxes showed that environmental contamination with high-chlorinated byphenyls has decreased noticeably since 1983, whereas release of low-chlorinated congeners is on an increase. This is apparently the result of a federal regulation established in 1978 which drastically limited the use of high-chlorinated biphenyls and almost completely ignored low-chlorinated congeners. Compared to PCB contamination, concentrations of HCB, HCH and p,p'-DDE in fox muscle were minimal. Of the HCH isomers, gamma-HCH (Lindan(R)) was most prevalent. It would appear that gamma-HCH may still be in use as an insecticide in forests.