Compostos organoestânicos: um risco potencial para contaminação do pescado marinho

Abstract

Organotin compounds (OTCs) are used in antifouling paints applied on boats all over the world, having shown to be highly toxic to different components of the marine biota. In mammals the effects of contamination from organotin compounds are: imunosuppression, reproduction changes and citotoxicity. Research work carried out off the Suva peninsula, in Fiji, and the Guanabara Bay, in Brazil, has shown the existing potential risks in the consumption of fish from OTC-contaminated areas like harbors, marinas and shipyards. The present study analyzed a sample of 50 individuals of Stramonita haemastoma that was commercialized at a marketplace in Fortaleza city, Brazil. Those individuals revealed high indices of imposex, which is an anomaly induced exclusively by organotin compounds. Although the exposure levels to such substances necessary to cause visual effects in human beings are unknown, it is very important to give a special attention to this problem in future studies, since in Brazil there does not yet exist a law enforcement of safe concentrations of those compounds in fish food.