TOXIC PCB CONGENERS AND ORGANOCHLORINE PESTICIDES IN ITALIAN HUMAN-MILK

Human milk from four major Italian cities was analyzed for individual congeners of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), DDT, DDE, hexachlorobenz ene, and beta-hexachlorocyclohexane. Minimum and maximum concentration s in milk from individual mothers for most compounds ranged between on e order of magnitude below and above the mean value of all mothers. Go od agreements were found between results from pooled samples and mean values of individual samples. No statistically significant difference between cities was found and the levels in milk from Italian mothers d id not differ significantly from published levels from other parts of the world. Principal component analyses revealed that the PCB congener distribution pattern was very similar in all mothers, independent of location. Average concentrations in milk from the four cities were 19( +/-5) mu g liter(-1) total PCB or 3.2(+/-0.8) ng liter(-1) toxicity eq uivalents according to the most conservative TCDD toxicity equivalent factors of PCBs proposed in the literature, 70(+/-18) mu g liter(-1) D DE, 4.5(+/-1.2) mu g liter(-1) DDT, 5.6(+/-1.9) mu g liter(-1) HCB, an d 4.4(+/-1.7) mu g liter(-1) beta-hexachlorocyclohexane. (C) 1994 Acad emic Press, Inc.