Persistent organic pollutants in human breast milk from Asian countries

Abstract

In this paper, we concisely reviewed the contamination of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), dibenzofurans (PCDFs), biphenyls (PCBs), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane and its metabolites (DDTs), hexachlorocyclohexane isomers (HCHs), chlordane compounds (CHLs), hexachlorobenzene (HCB) in human breast milk collected from Asian countries such as Japan, China, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia during 1999-2003. Dioxins, PCBs, CHLs in Japanese, and DDTs in Vietnamese, Chinese, Cambodian, Malaysian, and HCHs in Chinese, Indian, and HCB in Chinese breast milk were predominant. In India, levels of dioxins and related compounds (DRCs) in the mothers living around the open dumping site were notably higher than those from the reference site and other Asian developing countries, indicating that significant pollution sources of DRCs are present in the dumping site of India and the residents there have been exposed to relatively higher levels of these contaminants possibly via bovine milk.