| Abstract
| - The efficacy of a combination of two enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits was examined for screening the toxic equivalent (TEQ) concentrations of dioxins in retail fish. The coplanar PCB-EIA system, which is a competitive immunoassay specific for polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) 118, was tested as a screening method for mono-ortho PCBs. The Ah immunoassay (Ah-I), which is an ELISA-based aryl hydrocarbon receptor binding assay, was analyzed for its screening ability for non-ortho PCBs, polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), and dibenzofurans (PCDFs). Dilution and recovery tests using purified fish extracts revealed no major interference of the matrix in the PCB-EIA and suggested that the matrix effect was minimized in the Ah-I. Finally, the results for the fish samples (n = 20) showed a strong correlation between this method and high-resolution gas chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry for the determination of the TEQ concentrations of mono-ortho PCBs (r = 0.99) and non-ortho PCBs and PCDD/Fs (r = 0.97). These data indicate that our method is suitable for screening retail fish to determine the TEQ concentrations of dioxins.
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