Human health risk from consumption of marine fish contaminated with DDT and its metabolites in Maputo Bay, Mozambique

Abstract

Many countries with incidence of malaria, including those surrounding Maputo Bay, use dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) to reduce mosquitoes. This study is the first to estimate the human health risk associated with consumption of marine fish from Maputo Bay contaminated with DDTs. The median for ∑DDTs was 3.8 ng/g ww (maximum 280.9 ng/g ww). The overall hazard ratio for samples was 1.5 at the 75th percentile concentration and 28.2 at the 95th percentile. These calculations show increased potential cancer risks due to contamination by DDTs, data which will help policy makers perform a risk–benefit analysis of DDT use in malaria control programs in the region