Trends in 2,3,7,8-TCDD concentrations in fish tissues downstream of pulp mills bleaching with chlorine

Field measurements of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) concentrations in fish tissues from riverine environments impacted by treated pulp and paper industry effluent in the United States were analyzed. Data from 39 sites in 14 states across the four major U.S. paper-making regions were assembled and analyzed to determine the annual change in lipid-normalized concentrations of TCDD in fish tissue. The results provide strong evidence of a nationwide trend of decreasing lipid-normalized TCDD concentrations in fish tissue, with 84% of the examined sites showing a decrease. While the paucity of data currently limits any conclusions regarding the statistical significance at individual sites, the overall median rate calculated indicates a 0.36 annual fractional decrease in lipid-normalized concentrations of TCDD in fish tissue (0.18 to 0.51, 95% confidence interval); the average annual fractional decrease was 0.35 (0.23 to 0.47, 95% confidence interval). Subdividing fish into benthic and nonbenthic categories resulted in rates which were not significantly different from one another for both the median and mean statistics.