Geographic and Ethnic Variations in Serum Concentrations of Legacy Persistent Organic Pollutants among Men in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Arctic Russia

Abstract

The overwhelming majority of Arctic biomonitoring studies in humans include either pregnant or non-pregnant women of reproductive age while little attention is paid to toxic compounds concentrations in men. This study contributes with information of the present amounts of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in men living in Arctic Russia. We studied the serum concentrations of 11 polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners and 17 organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and some of their metabolites in samples collected from 92 adult men (mean age 43 years) from seven different settlements in Nenets Autonomous Okrug (NAO). The median concentrations of individual PCB congeners increased in the order PCB 183, PCB 180, PCB 118, PCB 138, PCB 153. The concentrations of o, p′-DDD, p, p′-DDD, aldrin, mirex and 1,2,3,5-TCB were in most cases below the quantification limit. The observed concentrations of PCBs and chlorinated pesticides were in the same range as those found in similar groups of women of these territories, but lower than of men in other Arctic countries. However, significant geographic differences between the settlements were observed with exceptionally high concentrations of PCBs in the Islands group. The highest serum ∑PCBs and β-HCH levels were observed in adult males aged 60–78 years. We found significant variations in serum concentrations of POPs across settlements and ethnic groups with exceptionally high concentrations of PCBs among the residents of the Arctic islands. At the same time, our findings suggest a considerable decrease in serum concentration of POPs over the last decade.

Review of scientific literature on available methods of assessing organochlorine pesticides in the environment

“…OCPs have been extracted from sediment using the soxhlet method [ [37] , [38] , [39] ]. Isotope dilution and centrifugation [ 40 , 41 ] and SPE [ 42 , 43 ] have been utilized for human serum extraction, while salting-out liquid-liquid extraction (SALLE) combined with dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME) has been reported for human tissue (liver, kidney, brain, etc) [ 44 ].…”

“…RT 7.30–10.7 min” [ 394 ] Tap and well water, tea, milk 5 0.002–0.08 0.005–0.26 Tap and well: 84.1–100.9; green tea and milk: 83.4−101.6 Tap& well: 8.2; green tea& milk: 1.4−8.6 GC-MS “MRM, the GC oven temperature was set as follows: 70 °C for 1 min, 10 °C min−1 to 180 °C (held for 5 min), 5 °C min−1 to 220 °C, and 30 °C min−1 to 280 °C (held for 8 min)” [ 395 ] Milk, soil, water 17 0.11 to 0.83 0.37–2.75 23.35–100.17 GC-ECD: “Splitless, the initial column temperature was 75 °C that was maintained for 1 min, increased at a rate of 25 °C/min to 150 °C, raised at a rate of 6 °C/min to 225 °C, and lastly increased at a rate of 15 °C/min to 290 °C where it was maintained for 10 min. The total analysis time was 31 min” [ 396 ] Human Serum 28 22.11–128.66 78–97 1.8–13.3 GC-HRMS: SIM [ 40 ] Lipid serum of human 17 0.84–25.7 3.20–89.9 86–120 GC-MS/MS [ 41 ] Blood 11 0.01–0.5 L Spiked blanks: 93–106, matrix spikes: 94–112 procedural blanks, Surrogate: 63–91 GC-MS: “Splitless mode, column flow rate was set at 1 Ml min− 1 in multiple reaction monitoring mode, with the starting oven temperature at 100 °C (1 min), ramping at 11 °C min− 1 to 180 °C, then 3 ◦Cmin-1 to 260 °C and ultimately to 300 °C at rate of 20 °C min− 1 with final holding time of 6 min” [ 397 ] Blood 4 MDL:0.37–1.8 MQL: 0.11–0.53 82–116 ...…”

International interdisciplinary Arctic research: Case study of the Russian Arctic biomonitoring mega-grant project

“…Cadmium (Cd) is found in high concentrations in the blood of smokers and lead (Pb) in that of hunters (Sobolev et al, 2021). As to the concentrations in human blood of POPs (listed in the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants 2021), there is a tendency for them to decrease in every Arctic State (Varakina et al, 2021(Varakina et al, , 2022, indicating the effectiveness of international efforts. Another source of adverse health effects is deficiency of essential elements (I, Fe, etc.).…”