Hair analysis: another approach for the assessment of human exposure to selected persistent organochlorine pollutants

Hair analysis was used for the assessment of exposure to organochlorine pollutants in specimens from Greece, Romania and Belgium. A simple method (using 3 N HCl as incubation reagent, liquid–liquid extraction with hexane/dichloromethane (DCM), alumina/acid silica clean-up and GC–ECD/GC–MS analysis)...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Chemosphere (Oxford) 2002, Vol.46 (3), p.413-418
Main Authors: Covaci, Adrian, Tutudaki, Maria, Tsatsakis, Aristidis M, Schepens, Paul
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age Factors
Biological and medical sciences
DDT - analysis
Environmental Monitoring - methods
Environmental pollutants toxicology
Europe
Female
Gas chromatography
Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry - methods
General aspects
Greece
Hair
Hair - chemistry
hexachlorocyclohexane
Hexachlorocyclohexane - analysis
Humans
Insecticides - analysis
Medical sciences
Occupational Exposure
Organochlorine pesticides
PCBs
Toxicology
Toxicology - methods
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Summary:Hair analysis was used for the assessment of exposure to organochlorine pollutants in specimens from Greece, Romania and Belgium. A simple method (using 3 N HCl as incubation reagent, liquid–liquid extraction with hexane/dichloromethane (DCM), alumina/acid silica clean-up and GC–ECD/GC–MS analysis) was used for screening of specimens. The highest organochlorine load (up to 148 ng/g hair for the sum of PCB, DDT and hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) isomers) was found in samples from a group of Greek women with past occupational exposure to pesticides. DDTs were the main organochlorine pollutants in Greek samples (up to 70%), while in Belgian hair samples their contribution was reduced to 40%. PCB mean concentration was higher in Belgian specimens (up to 14 ng/g hair). Lindane (γ-HCH) was the main HCH isomer found in the samples (up to 82% in the Greek samples). Contribution of p, p ′-DDT to the sum of DDTs was higher in Greek samples and indicates recent exposure to technical DDT. Similar PCB 153/sum PCBs ratios were found for each of the three countries suggesting similar sources of pollution with PCBs (mainly dietary). Artificially coloured hair samples were found to have lower, but not statistically significant concentrations of organochlorine pollutants than the non-coloured hair.
ISSN:0045-6535
1879-1298
DOI:10.1016/S0045-6535(01)00065-0