Biomonitoring studies for estimation population health surveillance and exposure risk assessment of different chemical contaminants such as chlorinated compounds or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) compounds has become an important task especially after the Stockholm Convention. If before the toxicological evaluation of humans were done using invasive methods like surgery or pricking, today many scientists tried to elaborate non-invasive analytical methods without disparage the final results. During the last years studies it was observed a relative higher pollution with organochlorine and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon compounds in surrounding regions of Dej, Transylvania. These past studies shown that pollution with chlorinated compounds as chlorinated solvents are attributed to the industrial activities from this region. The levels in soil and river water of these compounds were: ≈ 20 - 60 μg·kg^-1 and ≈ 15 - 45 μg·L^-1, respectively. In case of PAHs the following results were obtained for soil and river water: for two ring specie was between ≈ 26 - 35 μg·kg^-1 and ≈ 21 - 30 μg·L^-1, respectively; for three ring species was 15 - 35 μg·kg^-1 and ≈ 10 - 24 μg·L^-1, respectively; and in case of four ring species was between 10 - 20 μg·kg^-1 and ≈ 3 - 15 μg·L^-1, respectively. These results carry on concern regarding the bioaccumulation of these pollutants by humans through food web chain. In order to establish the uptake level of these compounds by humans, home grown animal hair as pig and cow were analyzed through SIM-GC-MS mode and ECD-FID-GC. The presence of chlorinated solvents detected in pig and cows hair were as follows: compounds from chloromethane family ≈ 5 - 10 ng·kg^-1 dry weight; compounds from chloroethane family ≈ 7 - 34 ng·kg^-1 dry weight for pig hair, and ≈ 12 - 17 ng·kg^-1 dry weight for compounds from chloromethane family and 14 - 48 ng·kg^-1 dry weight for cow hair. Difference between accumulation levels of PAH metabolites were observed also between cow and pig hair samples.

Date Published: 4 December 2010
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 7821, Advanced Topics in Optoelectronics, Microelectronics, and Nanotechnologies V, 782121 (4 December 2010);

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7821:
Advanced Topics in Optoelectronics, Microelectronics, and Nanotechnologies V
Paul Schiopu; George Caruntu, Editor(s)