Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), with properties of bioaccumulation and persistence, may pass through the placental barrier and affect the development of the next generation. Many OCPs have chiral structures and enantiomers often exhibit different biotoxicity. When assessing the exposure and health risks, racemates are always the target pollutants, while studies assessing the risks at enantiomer level are still limited. In this study, an epidemiological survey was conducted on the pregnant women living on the island facing the Yangtze River estuary which has a lot of OCPs emission. From the obtained information, most of the islanders prefer to consume fishes. Large consumption of seafood and marine mammals often causes health issues for the accumulation of OCPs. From the available results, the OCPs residue is in a relatively high level compared with other study populations. The residue in colostrum with high lipid content is significantly higher than in umbilical serum. This study intends to provide epidemiological evidence of mother-infant health risk from exposure to chiral OCPs in breast milk and umbilical cord blood in China, as well as the enantiomers' residual differences and enantioselective distribution in different human tissues. Exposure to chiral OCPs not only helps understand the cause and prevention for development defects, but also builds the foundations of evaluating other chiral chemicals' health risk.

Assessing the Chinese mother-infant health risk from exposure to chiral organochlorine pesticides in breast milk and umbilical cord blood

248th National Meeting (2014)

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