Distribution and relationships of As, Cd, Pb and Hg in freshwater fish from five French fishing areas.

The concentrations of arsenic, cadmium, mercury and lead in 149 muscle samples of eight freshwater fish species (European eel, bream, common carp, European catfish, roach, perch, pike and pikeperch) from five different French fishing areas from contaminated and control sites were measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry after microwave digestion under pressure. No significant correlation was found between the condition factor (CF), based on the length-mass relationship, and As, Cd and Pb levels in all the samples analysed, but a positive correlation was detected between CF and Hg levels (P<0.0001, R=0.49). Positive correlations with body length were only found for Hg in roach (P<0.05, R=0.32) and Pb in bream (P<0.05, R=0.48) and correlations with both body weight and length were also found for Hg in pike (P<0.05, R=0.90 and 0.86) and Cd in European eel (P<0.01, R=-0.35 and -0.37). The average content and the standard deviation in fish muscle samples was 0.007±0.012, 0.102±0.077, 0.142±0.097 and 0.035±0.053 mg kg(-1) of wet mass for Cd, As, Hg and Pb, respectively. Significant differences were established between groups of predatory fish and non-predatory fish for Hg and Pb, and between control and contaminated sites in the whole selection and also within feeding guilds, i.e. the values of Hg in the benthophagic fish were significantly different between these sites. Finally, these results were also compared for each species with previous French and European studies.