Preliminary survey of alkylphenols and bisphenol-A from seawater and seafood in Singapore

A preliminary survey of alkylphenols bisphenol-A in coastal waters of Singapore was presented. Surface seawater samples were collected from 28 locations along the Singapore coastline from May to December 2000. Alkylphenol concentrations ranged between 0.008 and 1.03 μg/L, while bisphenol-A concentrations ranged between 0.095 and 0.855 μg/L in seawater samples analyzed. The lowest amount of hexylphenol and nonylphenol were detected at East Coast Park and Labrador Park, respectively. Common seafood items available in local supermarkets were also analyzed for alkylphenols and bisphenol-A using a novel, microwave-assisted extraction technique. Up to 0.082 μg/g wet weight of alkylphenols and 0.002-0.010 μg/g wet weight of bisphenol-A in prawn, crab, squid and fish were found. The highest amounts of nonylphenol (0.197 μg/g wet weight) and bisphenol-A (0.013 μg/g wet weight) were found in crab samples, while squid contained the lowest amounts of these pollutants. Alkylphenols in squid muscle ranged between 0.005 and 0.037 μg/g wet weight. The lowest concentration of bisphenol-A was recorded in prawn samples (0.002 μg/g wet weight). This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 22nd ACS National Meeting (Chicago, IL 8/26-30/2001).