Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, dibenzofurans and polychlorinated biphenyls levels in human breast milk from different regions of Turkey

• Published in: Chemosphere (Oxford) Vol. 76; no. 11; pp. 1563 - 1571
• Main Authors: Çok, Ismet, Donmez, Menekse Keski, Uner, Mine, Demirkaya, Erkan, Henkelmann, Bernhard, Shen, Heqing, Kotalik, Jarmila, Schramm, Karl-Werner
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.09.2009; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult; Air. Soil. Water. Waste. Feeding; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; Applied sciences; Benzofurans - metabolism; Biological and medical sciences; Breast; Contaminants; Dibenzofurans, Polychlorinated; Ecotoxicology, biological effects of pollution; Environment. Living conditions; Environmental Monitoring; Environmental Pollutants - metabolism; Exact sciences and technology; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; High resolution; Human; Human breast milk; Humans; Mass spectrometry; Maternal Exposure; Medical sciences; Milk; Milk, Human - metabolism; PCB; PCDD/F; Pollution; Polychlorinated biphenyls; Polychlorinated Biphenyls - metabolism; Polychlorinated Dibenzodioxins - analogs & derivatives; Polychlorinated Dibenzodioxins - metabolism; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Turkey; Young Adult; Asia; Turkey; TEQ; UNEP; TCDD; PCB; PCDF; POP; Turkey; TEF; Human breast milk; PCDD; PCDD/F; HRGC/HRMS; WHO; Dioxin derivatives; Polychlorobiphenyls; Persistent organic pollutant; Halogenated hydrocarbon; Chlorine Organic compounds; Chlorocarbon; Human milk; Organic compounds; Breast milk
• ISSN: 0045-6535; 1879-1298
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2009.05.032

Human breast milk offers the optimal nutrition for all infants and have been widely used in biomonitoring programs to assess human exposure to lipophylic environmental contaminants such as polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDD), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDF) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB). There are no previous reports from Turkey on chemically determined levels of PCDDs, PCDFs, and PCBs in human breast milk expressed as World Health Organization (WHO) toxic equivalents (TEQ). To get an overview of the levels of these contaminants in Turkish human milk, samples from 51 Turkish women living in the Ankara, İstanbul, Antalya, Kahramanmaraş, and Afyon provinces were analyzed by high resolution gas chromatography/high resolution mass spectrometry (HRGC/HRMS) throughout 2007. The mean concentrations of WHO PCDD/F-TEQ and WHO PCB-TEQ of all samples from the five regions were 7.5 and 3.1 pg g −1 on a lipid basis, respectively. PCDD/F concentrations ranged between 0.78 and 29.3 pg WHO-TEQ g −1 fat (1.7 and 36.2 pg WHO-TEQ g −1 fat, respectively, including PCB). Of the five studied locations, the lowest levels of ∑TEQs (PCDD/F + PCB) were found in the Afyon (6.8 pg WHO-TEQ g −1 fat) and the highest in the Antalya (15.6 pg WHO-TEQ g −1 fat) province. The results have been discussed in terms of regions and PCDD/F and PCBs for which analyses had been made. The mean levels of PCDD/Fs and PCBs in Turkish human milk are comparable to that found in other countries.