Lead and cadmium content in the meat tissues of fish from water ecosystems in the vicinity of a pesticide tomb

Lead and cadmium levels were determined in the meat tissues of roach, bream, and carp netted in a lake and in fish ponds threatened by a pesticide tomb and in control basins in northeastern Poland. Concentrations in roach ranged from 20 to 124 μg kg-1 of Pb and from 1 to 19 μg kg-1 of Cd. In bream they were from 4 to 280 μg kg-1 of Pb and 2 to 28 μg kg-1 of Cd, while in carp they were from 9 to 82 μg kg-1 of Pb and 2 to 260 μg kg-1 of Cd. The metal concentrations were low; no result exceeded admissible residue levels set forth by Polish law, and no evident contamination of fish by leakage from the pesticide tomb was detected.