QUALITY ASSURANCE QUALITY-CONTROL PROCEDURES FOR CHLORINATED HYDROCARBONS IN HUMAN BREAST ADIPOSE-TISSUE

Extensive literature exists supporting the accumulation of organochlor ine pesticides such as DDT [2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)-1,1,1-trichloroeth ane], and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in human adipose tissue. De bate has surfaced concerning the link between these environmental cont aminants and human breast cancer. Accurate residue analysis and proper analytical procedures are critical in determining the extent to which these compounds play a role in human breast cancer. Further, adequate quality assessment/quality control (QA/QC) is critical for reliable r esidue analysis. The purpose of this research was twofold: (1) to find an appropriate surrogate for human breast adipose tissue for spiking purposes, as human samples are difficult to obtain, and (2) to develop a human breast adipose tissue pool that yields adequate reproducibili ty with low coefficients of variation (CVs) for each compound of inter est. Using a previously validated method developed in the Analytical L aboratory at Colorado State University rendered ovine adipose tissue w as found to be a suitable spiking material, as it was free of interfer ing compounds and behaved in a manner similar to human breast adipose tissue throughout the analytical method. Further, this analytical meth od was used to produce data on three control pool preparations: (A) bl ended human breast adipose tissue (n = 26), (B) blended and partially rendered human breast adipose tissue (n = 12), and (C) fully blended a nd rendered human breast adipose tissue (n = 15). The CVs between cont rol pools vary up to 20% for a single compound. The most reproducible preparation procedure requires full blending and rendering.