Dietary exposure to DDTs in two coastal cities and an inland city in China

- Seafood items are contaminated by DDT in coastal area of China.
- The EDI of food for DDT in coastal area are higher than in inland area of China.
- DDT may be still used for both agriculture and aquaculture in China.

Dietary intakes of dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethanes (DDTs) of residents from two coastal cities: Guiyu (GY) and Taizhou (TZ) and one inland city: Lin'an (HZ) were investigated by collecting 73 food items (divided into 9 food groups). The oriental weatherfish and white crab (both from TZ) contained higher DDTs (112 ± 1.81 and 70.1 ± 1.81 ng/g wet wt, respectively) than the maximum admissible concentration (50 ng/g wet wt) set by the European Union for human consumption. Furthermore, 40% of TZ seafood, 56% of GY and 30% of HZ freshwater fish exceeded the guideline for subsistence fish eaters for DDTs (14.4 ng/g wet wt) defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). The estimated daily intakes of DDTs for TZ (52.1 ng/kg bw/day) and GZ (31.5 ng/kg bw/day) were significantly higher than for HZ (13.0 ng/g wet wt, p < 0.05), these values were below the US EPA oral reference dose (500 ng/kg bw/day) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization provisional tolerable daily intake (10,000 ng/kg bw/day).