[en] Women of childbearing age (WCBA) are advised by state, tribal, and federal agencies to limit their consumption of certain fish, in part, because of concerns about the ingestion of methylmercury and its impact on the development of fetuses. We studied the fish-eating habits of WCBA who had a fishing license and lived near the Great Lakes, where mercury in locally-caught fish is a concern, as these women were likely at greater risk of elevated mercury exposure than the general population. We used a web-based diary method to gather fish consumption data from WCBA anglers over a 4-month period in the summer of 2014. We estimated mercury intake based on reported mercury content of species consumed, frequency of consumption, and meal portion size, and calculated percent exceeding the USEPA reference dose (RfD). Based on these calculations, we estimated that study participants (n = 1395) ingested 0.031 ± 0.002 (95% CI) ug/kg/d of methylmercury (arithmetic mean). We also found that 3.4% of study participants exceeded the RfD when we averaged estimated intake over the 4-month study period. While most (82%) of the fish meals WCBA anglers ate were purchased fish meals generally low in mercury, study participants ingested a disproportionate amount of mercury from locally-caught fish meals (18% of meals contributed 37% of mercury intake). We estimated 11% of WCBA anglers who did not follow state and federal guidelines in effect at the time of our study exceeded the mercury RfD, whereas fewer than 1% of WCBA anglers who followed the guidelines exceeded the RfD. These findings highlight the importance of encouraging WCBA to follow guidelines from agencies for locally-caught fish, in combination with guidelines for purchased fish.

[en] A rigorous solid phase extraction/liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry method for the measurement of 10 perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in fish fillets is described and applied to fillets of bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus) collected from selected areas of Minnesota and North Carolina. The 4 PFC analytes routinely detected in bluegill fillets were perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorodecanoic acid (C10), perfluoroundecanoic acid (C11), and perflurododecanoic acid (C12). Measures of method accuracy and precision for these compounds showed that calculated concentrations of PFCs in spiked samples differed by less than 20% from their theoretical values and that the %RSD for repeated measurements was less than 20%. Minnesota samples were collected from areas of the Mississippi River near historical PFC sources, from the St. Croix River as a background site, and from Lake Calhoun, which has no documented PFC sources. PFOS was the most prevalent PFC found in the Minnesota samples, with median concentrations of 47.0-102 ng/g at locations along the Mississippi River, 2.08 ng/g in the St. Croix River, and 275 ng/g in Lake Calhoun. North Carolina samples were collected from two rivers with no known historical PFC sources. PFOS was the predominant analyte in fish taken from the Haw and Deep Rivers, with median concentrations of 30.3 and 62.2 ng/g, respectively. Concentrations of C10, C11, and C12 in NC samples were among the highest reported in the literature, with respective median values of 9.08, 23.9, and 6.60 ng/g in fish from the Haw River and 2.90, 9.15, and 3.46 ng/g in fish from the Deep River. These results suggest that PFC contamination in freshwater fish may not be limited to areas with known historical PFC inputs.