Organochlorine pesticide residues in the serum of mothers and their newborns from three Yugoslav towns

Exposure to organochlorine compounds of population groups in Croatia

“…All analysed samples contained p,p¢‐DDE, the main p,p¢‐DDT metabolite, and medians or means of the groups ranged from 2‐33 μ g/L. p,p¢‐DDT was found less frequently and the maximal mean of groups was 34 μ g/L reported in mother’s serum from Zabok and Bjelovar in 1976[5]; the maximal mean concentration was reported by the same authors in children’s serum samples from Pula in 1978‐81[7]. HCB was analysed in several groups, and median concentrations were 0.9‐2.0 μ g/L.…”

“…Monitoring of organochlorine compounds in human blood serum in Croatia started in 1975 and until now investigations have been limited to organochlorine pesticides and PCB[4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 23]. The list of studied population groups and analysed compounds is given in Table I.…”

“…All samples contained p,p¢‐DDE and the ratio of concentrations was 1:3:6 for cord blood serum, mother’s blood serum and colostrum respectively. In the second and third study, serum was analysed from 31 and 33 nursing mothers and their infants respectively[5, 7]. All samples contained p,p¢‐DDE.…”