A probabilistic approach for estimating infant exposure to environmental pollutants in human breast milk

Abstract

Effective risk assessment and management are often hampered by a lack of reliable exposure data. The probabilistic exposure assessment approach takes into account individual variations in exposure, and thus, overly conservative estimates based on worst case scenarios can be avoided. The aim was to provide reliable information on the intake of non-dioxinlike (NDL) and dioxinlike PCBs, PCDDs and PCDFs in breastfed infants and their mothers during 2000-2006. Hence, a probabilistic model was developed to estimate the exposure and compare it with a deterministic exposure assessment approach. The estimated probabilistic mean intake in 1, 3 and 6 months old infants was 44, 31 and 17 pg total-TEQ/kg bw per day, and 418, 294 and 165 ng NDL-PCBs/kg bw per day, respectively. Intakes differed up to 41% between the upper-bound percentiles of the probabilistic approach and the deterministic worst case scenario approach, whereas no difference in mean values was observed between the two approaches. The median cumulative intake increased during 6 months of breastfeeding to 20 ng total-TEQ and 352 μg NDL-PCBs. There was a significant temporal decrease in infant exposure during 2000-2006 (30%). Less than 4% of the mothers had an intake exceeding the TDI of 2 pg TEQ/kg bw per day (median: 1.2 pg total-TEQ/kg bw). To conclude, by use of a probabilistic approach and biomonitoring data we were able to calculate reliable estimates of infant exposure to environmental pollutants and the daily intakes of the nursing mothers using the same data.

Validation of questionnaire‐based long‐term dietary exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls using biomarkers

“…In the present study, we developed two extensive recipe‐based databases to reflect the time trend of PCB concentrations in food for the two FFQs (1997 and 2004–2006) based on dietary concentrations of CB‐153 in food. CB‐153 is the most abundant PCB congener in human biological media and has been proposed as an indicator biomarker for total PCB body burden . We observed serum CB‐153 to be highly correlated with the other PCB congeners, including the dioxinlike (CB‐118 and CB‐156) and nondioxinlike (CB‐138, CB‐170, CB‐180) congeners, as well as with sumPCB.…”

Agent Orange Exposure and 2,3,7,8‐Tetrachlorodibenzo‐p‐Dioxin (TCDD) in Human Milk

“…A probabilistic model based on 2000 to 2006 Swedish human milk measurements demonstrated a decline in probabilistic mean TEQ intake from PCDDs/PCDFs from 24.4 pg/kg body weight/day at 1 month of age to 9.6 pg/kg body weight/day at 6 months of age. The worst‐case scenario intake decreased from 60.8 to 24.1 pg/kg body weight/day over the same interval (Bergkvist et al., ).…”

Duration of breastfeeding and serum PCB 153 concentrations in children

“…Therefore the duration of breastfeeding is a strong predictor of body burden of organochlorines (Hardell et al, 2010; Lackmann et al, 2004; Patandin et al, 1997; Patandin et al, 1999; Kreuzer et al, 1997; Barr et al, 2003; Lanting et al, 1998; Chao et al, 2004; Tohyama et al, 2011). A more accurate assessment of exposure is a product of the concentration of the compound in milk and the rate of consumption of breast milk (Patandin et al, 1999; Bergkvist et al, 2010; Arcus-Arth et al, 2005; Koopman-Esseboom et al, 1996; Ulaszewska et al, 2011) or alternatively a product of the breast milk levels and the number of weeks of breastfeeding (Pan et al, 2009; Pan et al, 2010; Weisglas-Kuperus et al, 2004). All these approaches are accompanied by many uncertainties.…”