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http://dx.doi.org/10.5352/JLS.2010.20.3.356

Congener Specific Profiles and Exposure Pathways of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) in Breast Milk of Chuncheon Area  

We, Sung-Ug (Department of Environmental Engineering, Kyungnam University)
Baek, In-Cheon (Department of Environmental Engineering, Kyungnam University)
Park, Sang-Ah (Department of Environmental Engineering, Kyungnam University)
Kang, Seong-Hoon (Department of Environmental Engineering, Kyungnam University)
Cho, Yu-Jin (Department of Environmental Engineering, Kyungnam University)
Cho, Bong-Hui (Department of Environmental Engineering, Kyungnam University)
Yoon, Cho-Hee (Department of Environmental Engineering, Kyungnam University)
Kim, Ki-Ho (Center for Instrumental Analysis, Kyungnam University)
Min, Byung-Yoon (Department of Environmental Engineering, Kyungnam University)
Publication Information
Journal of Life Science / v.20, no.3, 2010 , pp. 356-364 More about this Journal
Abstract
This study was carried out to investigate the exposure pathway of PBDEs in human breast milk collected from new mothers residing in Chuncheon, a comparatively clean area in Korea. The congeners of PBDE in 22 human breast milk samples were analyzed using a high resolution gas chromatography with a high resolution mass detector. The residue level of ${\sum}PBDEs$ was higher in primipara subjects than in multipara subjects (p<0.05). The levels in this study were similar to those of people in some Asian and European countries, but were lower than those of people in north America. In the congener profiles, BDE-47 (mean contribution=36.1%) was predominant, followed by BDE-153 (27%), BDE-99 (11.7%), BDE-100 (11.1%), BDE-28 (7.9%) and BDE-183 (3.5%). The sum of BDE-47 and BDE-153 accounted for more than 50% of ${\sum}PBDEs$ in most samples. BDE-47 was highly correlated with ${\sum}PBDEs$ (r=0.94, p<0.001). No strong trend was observed between PBDE levels and a number of key biological factors (women's age, weight, height and body mass index) examined in this study, however, weak correlations were observed in PBDE levels measured against dietary habits, particularly in fish consumption frequency. It seems that Korean people might be exposed to multiple sources including products of PBDEs, and particularly food resources.
Keywords
PBDEs; congener profiles; breast milk; exposure sources; Chuncheon;
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