Organochlorine pesticides residues in humam milk, from Londrina-Pr.

Abstract

Breast milk samples from 30 women which delivered, between August and November 1987, at Hospital Universitario Regions! do None do Paraná, Londrina, Paraná, Brasil, were collected, to determine the concentration oí organochlorine pesticides. The nursing mothers were separated in two groups: a 15 primiparous mother group and a 15 non-primiparous mother group and the basic requirement was that the nursing mothers had to be living in Londrina at teas! for a year. The organochlorine pesticides were extracted and cleaned-up from the milk by a modified Steinwandter method (1982) and separated, identified and quantified by gas-liquid chromatography. All milk samples showed residues of p,p'-DDT, p,p'DDE and B-BHC. While p,p'-DDT appeared in 43,3% of She milk samples, p,p'-DDE and B-BHC appeared in 100% of the samples. The average for total DDT (p,p'-DDT + p,p'-DDE) was 0.142 mg/kg of breast milk, indicating that the children from those mothers were ingesting on average 2.84 times the maximum level of residue set by FAO/OMS. In relation to the acceptable daily intake, the children were ingesting on average 4,84 times above the acceptable daily intake established by FAO/OMS. It was also observed that there is no significant difference between the amounts of each one of the pesticides when considering primiparous and non-primiparous mothers.