PCB AND DIOXIN LEVELS IN PLASMA AND HUMAN-MILK OF 418 DUTCH WOMEN ANDTHEIR INFANTS - PREDICTIVE VALUE OF PCB CONGENER LEVELS IN MATERNAL PLASMA FOR FETAL AND INFANTS EXPOSURE TO PCBS AND DIOXINS

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) as well as dioxins (polychlorinated d ibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and dibenzofurans (PCDFs)) are potentially ha zardous compounds in the environment for human beings. In order to inv estigate PCB and dioxin exposure of Dutch women and their neonates, le vels were examined in 418 mother-infant pairs. Four non-planar PCB con gener levels (PCB 118, 138, 153 and 180) were measured in maternal pla sma and in umbilical cord plasma. The 209 mothers who breast-fed their infants collected human milk samples for the analysis of seventeen 2, 3,7,8-substituted PCDD and PCDF congener levels, three planar PCB and twenty-three non-planar PCB congener levels. The dioxin and planar PCB levels we measured in human milk (mean 30 respectively 16 pg TEQ/g fa t), belong to the highest background levels analysed all over the worl d but they are in the normal range for highly industrialised, densely populated countries in Western Europe. Correlation coefficients betwee n PCB 118, 138, 153 and 180 congener levels in maternal plasma and PCB levels in cord plasma or PCB and dioxin levels in human milk are high ly significant. However, the 95% predictive interval is too wide to pr edict accurately the PCB and dioxin levels to which an individual infa nt is exposed in utero or postnatally by breast-feeding, from the PCB levels in maternal plasma.