Recently, sea-dumped chemical weapons (CWs) containing toxic chemical warfare agents (CWAs) have raised international attention. It is well known that CWAs are leaking from corroded munitions causing a risk to the surrounding marine environment, while the impact on marine biota is still unknown. In this study, cod (Gadus morhua) was used as a model species to study the possible bioaccumulation of phenylarsenic CWAs and their negative effects at multiple levels of biological organization on fish living in the vicinity of a major CWs dumpsite in the Bornholm Basin in the Baltic Sea. In total, 14% of the cod muscle samples collected close to the main dumpsite contained trace levels of phenylarsenic CWAs. However, most of the biomarkers measured did not show clear differences between this area compared with a lesser contaminated reference area. On the other hand, significant changes in some biomarkers were observed in individuals containing trace levels of CWA-related chemicals. The results gained in this study have significant importance for environmental risk assessment and for evaluating the risk of CWA contamination for human seafood consumers.

最近，包含有毒化学战剂（CWA）的海上倾倒化学武器（CW）引起了国际关注。众所周知，CWA正在从受腐蚀的弹药泄漏，从而对周围的海洋环境造成危险，而对海洋生物区系的影响仍然未知。在这项研究中，鳕鱼（Gadus morhua）被用作模型物种来研究苯砷CWA的可能生物富集及其在多种生物组织水平上对生活在波罗的海博恩霍尔姆盆地主要CW垃圾场附近的鱼类的负面影响。总计，在主要垃圾场附近收集的鳕鱼肌肉样本中，有14％含有痕量的苯砷CWA。但是，与污染程度较小的参考区域相比，大多数测得的生物标志物在该区域之间没有显示出明显的差异。另一方面，在含有痕量CWA相关化学物质的个体中观察到一些生物标志物的显着变化。这项研究中获得的结果对于环境风险评估和评估人类海产品消费者的CWA污染风险具有重要意义。