GC/MS, while the lighter PAH compounds were more sensitively detected by 
6C/MS. Given the greater specificity of the GC/MS analysis, the GC/MS 
result should be relied upon in such cases of disagreement. Recovery for 
PAH compounds was estimated by use of perdeuterated perylene spiked into 
raw fish samples prior to extraction and quantitated in HPLC-fractionated 
fish using GC/MS. The average recovery seen was 70.7%. The levels of PAH 
seen ranged from trace levels (<1 ppb) to 32 ppb; however, few of the 
levels seen could be confirmed by GC/MS. The very low levels of PAH 
seen in tissue are consistent with several previous studies of PAH 
metabolism in fish and with field studies of fish tissue taken in what is 
currently viewed as the most severe example of PAH contamination in 
Puget Sound, i.e. Eagle Harbor (Maiins, 1985). Based on the results 
shown in Table 4 and in previous studies, individual PAH carcinogens in 
edible tissue are clearly expected to fall below 10 ppb, regardless of 
sampling site. 
Trace organics analysis in cooked fish . The raw fish versus cooked fish 
assay results are shown in Table 5. These results are presented in two 
ways--as raw levels and as levels corrected for recovery of the spiked 
o,p'-DDE. The cooked fish samples in several cases would not permit 
quantitation by the standard Level 1 protocol, due to sample or oil 
matrix interference with the second chromatography standard (octachloro- 
naphthalene), so external standard response was used for these samples. 
In general, for all of the compounds considered, reductions in tissue 
levels of 30% or more were seen after cooking. One consistent exception 
to this trend was the Pacific tomcod experiment, where apparent increases 
were seen. These increases were not large (a few ppb) and might be an 
effect of cooking on the fish matrix, or some analytical artifact. 
Without further replication, however, this result should be considered 
anomalous. The other samples display expected reductions as predicted 
by previous studies, and as would be expected for contaminants associated 
with lipid components of tissue that are rendered out of the fish as 
liquid during cooking. The overall conclusion from this experiment is 
that wet tissue analysis of contaminant loading represents worst-case 
contamination, which would decrease upon frying. 
Estimation of human exposure to contaminants . In order to estimate 
contaminant exposure in recreational anglers, one trace metal (arsenic) 
and one class of trace organic (PCBs) were selected for study. Based on 
the data presented in this report, the 5th, 50th and 95th percentile levels 
of these compounds were calculated (ignoring species and site). These 
values represented a global estimate of the concentration of these 
compounds. For arsenic the concentrations were: 5th percentile--! ppm; 
50th percent!le--3 ppm; 95th percent!le--20 ppm. For PCBs the levels 
were: 5th percent!le--24 ppb; 50th percentile--81 ppb; 95th percentile-- 
315 ppb. Based on these values and using estimated consumption rates 
(derived from interview data) dosage rates (ug/person/day) were calculated 
for four commonly caught species. The results are presented in Tables 
6 (arsenic) and 7 (PCBs). 
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