Coplanar PCBs in human milk in the province of Quebec, Canada: Are they more toxic than dioxin for breast fed infants

Journal Article · Tue Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 1991 · Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01700935· OSTI ID:7050056

Dewailly, E; Gingras, S; Laliberte, C ^[1]; Weber, J P ^[2]

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1. Community Health Dept.-CHUL, St-Cyrille Ouest, Quebec (Canada)
2. Quebec Toxicology Center-CHUL, Ste-Foy, Quebec (Canada)

Different experimental studies have increased our understanding of toxic mechanisms of PCBs, PCDDs and PCDFs. Recently, coplanar PCBs which are approximate stereoisomers of 2,3,7,8-TCDD have been found to be the most toxic congeners of PCBs with a toxicity relative to that of 2,3,7,8 TCDD ranging from 0.001 for mono-ortho coplanars to 0.01, 0.1 and 0.05 respectively for tetra, penta and hexa non-ortho coplanar congeners. These congeners are present in different biological specimens at very high levels when compared with levels of TCDD. Therefore, coplanar PCBs determination is useful in evaluating the toxic potential of breast milk for infants. Moreover, the assessment of the relative importance of these compounds compared with other PCB congeners and PCDDs/PCDFs could be helpful in choosing the most suitable toxic parameters for the biomonitoring of human populations. This paper presents and discusses the levels of coplanar PCBs in the breast milk of a representative sample of 96 women from the general population of the province of Quebec - Canada.

• OSTI ID: 7050056
• Journal Information: Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology; (United States), Vol. 47:4; ISSN 0007-4861
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
CHLORINATED AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS
TOXICITY
MILK
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
DIOXIN
INFANTS
PRENATAL EXPOSURE
QUEBEC
AGE GROUPS
AROMATICS
BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS
BODY FLUIDS
CANADA
CHILDREN
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
FOOD
HALOGENATED AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS
HETEROCYCLIC COMPOUNDS
MATERIALS
NORTH AMERICA
ORGANIC CHLORINE COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
560300* - Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology