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Organotin compounds in marine organisms
As a result of its toxicity to microorganisms, tributyltin has been used commercially as a bactericide and algicide. Due to their hydrophobicity and persistence, organotin compounds accumulate in marine sediments entering the food-chain of marine benthic organisms. Tributyltin is extremely toxic to mollusk species such as oysters, mussels and snails, leading to imposex at water concentration levels as low as 2 ng/L. Because of their extremely high sensitivity agains this toxic substance, mollusk species are also used for biomonitoring.
The main issues to be controlled during the analysis of biological tissues for organotins are:
- quantitativness of extraction of the species from the tissue
- absence of degradation of the organotins during the extraction
- control of contamination (through plastic labware, gloves etc.)
- control of the derivatization yield
- control of interferences (e.g. with methods lacking selectivity such as GC-FPD)
CRMs play a major role in the development and validation of
methods and for quality control. The following certified reference
materials (CRMs) are available for the speciation of organotin
compounds in marine animal tissues:
* click on the suppliers name to reach the record within EVISA's Company Database, click on the
material name for a link to the record within EVISA's Material Database.
 EVISA Material Database: Materials related to tin speciation back to the summary table
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