Determination of PCDD/Fs, PBDD/Fs and dioxin-like PCBs in human milk from mothers residing in the rural areas in Flanders, using the CALUX bioassay and GC-HRMS

Abstract

Since the CALUX (Chemically Activated LUciferase gene eXpression) bioassay is a fast and inexpensive tool for the determination of dioxin-like compounds in a large number of samples and requires only small sample volumes, the use of this technique in human biomonitoring programs provides a good alternative to GC-HRMS. In this study, a new CALUX method for the separate analysis of PCDD/Fs and dioxin-like PCBs (dl-PCBs) in small amounts of human milk samples with the new sensitive H1L7.5c1 cell line was used to analyze 84 human milk samples, collected from mothers residing in the Flemish rural communities. The geometric mean CALUX-Bioanalytical Equivalent (CALUX-BEQ) values, reported for the 84 mothers from the study area were 10.4 (95% CI: 9.4–11.4) pg CALUX-BEQ per g lipid or 0.41 (95% CI: 0.37–0.45) pg CALUX-BEQ per g milk for the PCDD/Fs and 1.73 (1.57–1.91) pg CALUX-BEQ per g lipid or 0.07 (95% CI: 0.06–0.08) pg CALUX-BEQ per g milk for the dioxin-like PCBs. Multiple regression analysis showed significant associations between PCDD/Fs and weight change after pregnancy, smoking and consumption of local eggs. One pooled human milk sample was analyzed with both CALUX and GC-HRMS. The ratio of CALUX and GC-HRMS results for this sample were respectively 1.60, 0.58 and 1.23 for the PCDD/Fs, the dl-PCBs and the sum of both fractions, when using the 2005-TEF values. Additionally, also low levels of certain brominated dioxins and furans were detected in the pooled sample with GC-HRMS.

Polybrominated dibenzo-p-dioxins and furans (PBDD/Fs): Contamination in food, humans and dietary exposure

“…The more abundant congeners were 2, 3,7,3,4,7,3,7,3,7, were also noted at comparatively high levels. A PBDD/F TEQ of 0.67 ng/kg lipid was reported (Colles et al, 2008) for a pooled milk sample from Belgian mothers, and a later, pooled Belgian milk sample from Flanders (Croes et al, 2013) reported a TEQ of 0.42 or 0.34 pg/g lipid, depending on whether TEF 1998 or TEF 2005 was used. Similar concentrations (0.45 to 2.64 pg TEQ /g lipid) and a similar frequency of occurrence of 2,3,7,8-TBDF and 2,3,4,7,8-PeBDF as the Japanese study, were seen in 31 pooled breast milk samples from 25 countries (Asia-Pacific, Europe and North/South America), (Kotz et al, 2005;.…”

Combinatorial Biochemical and Chemical Analyses of Polychlorinated Dibenzo-p-dioxins and Dibenzofurans in Agricultural Soils from Chongming Island, Shanghai, China

“…This tendency has been observed in other studies in which environmental samples have been analyzed using both bioanalytical and chemical methods (USEPA 2007;Tomoaki et al 2008;Masakazu et al 2009;Samara et al 2010;Croes et al 2012Croes et al , 2013. In immunoassay systems, some false positive interference for the lower concentration samples could be attributed to the presence of high levels of congeners that have significant EIA cross-reactivity but are not determined by the HRGC/HRMS analysis because they contribute minimal toxicity.…”

Investigation on the presence of Dioxins in the Sicilian Sheep’s milk

“…The second step is to purify the fat extract through the passage 6.73 pg OMS-PCDD/F-TEQ/g fat. The results obtained from the determination of the other samples show very low levels of contamination from 1.36 to 0.0054 µg OMS-PCDD/F-TEQ/g by demonstrating that the milk produced is a safe food for human consumption (see also Schuhmacher et al, 2002;Gullet & Touai, 2003;Croes et al, 2013).…”