Volumes 463–464, 1 October 2013, Pages 720–726
Pesticide residues in human breast milk: Risk assessment for infants from Punjab, India
Highlights
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- Temporal trend for occurrence of HCH and DDT residues in human breast milk indicated significant reduction.
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- Contamination of breast milk with chlorpyrifos, cypermethrin and endosulfan residues observed first time in this region.
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- Estimated daily dietary intake of DDT by few infants still exceeded FAO/WHO recommended provisional tolerable daily intakes.
Abstract
Punjab
state in India is an agrarian society, where agriculture is the
lifeline of farming community. To keep pace with increasing demands of
food for growing population the indiscriminate use of pesticides has led
to the contamination of environment and food commodities in this
region.
Analysis of human breast milk samples (n = 53) for pesticide residues revealed the presence of β-, γ-HCH, p,p′ DDD, p,p′ DDE, p,p′ DDT and endrin with mean concentration of 97.9, 101.7, 239.8, 1574.1, 100.3 and 90.7 ng g− 1
lipid wt., respectively. In addition, occurrence of β-endosulfan,
endosulfan sulphate, cypermethrin and chlorpyrifos in this study have
also been reported for the first time in human breast milk in Punjab,
India. With increase in parity, HCH and DDT residue burden in donor's
milk decreased. Although levels of HCH and DDT residues in breast milk
samples have decreased significantly, yet estimated daily intake values
for DDT are higher than the FAO/WHO permissible tolerable daily intake
values for few infants.
Keywords
- DDTs;
- HCHs;
- Human breast milk;
- Risk assessment;
- Infants
- Corresponding
author at: School of Public Health and Zoonoses, Guru Angad Dev
Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana 141001, India. Tel.:
+ 91 9855425578; fax: + 91 161 2400822.
Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.