title: Persistent environmental contaminants in human milk: concentrations and time trends in Italy.
abstract: Breast milk monitoring studies of persistent and toxic environmental contaminants are of primary importance for carrying out an adequate risk assessment at the actual levels of human exposure and represent a major source of information on infant perinatal exposure. Milk specimens from mothers of the general population of the Venice and Rome areas were collected over the 1998-2001 period, pooled, and analyzed for selected persistent organic pollutants such as polychlorodibenzodioxins (PCDDs), polychlorodibenzofurans (PCDFs), polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs), organochlorinated pesticides (p,p'-DDE, p,p'-DDT, hexachlorobenzene), and polybromodiphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and the heavy metals Cd, Co, Cu, Hg, Mn, Pb, Sn, and Zn. The goal was to verify whether mother milk from the Venice area, whose lagoon is partly under direct industrial impact, had a contaminant load greater than that from the Rome area, primarily urban. For mothers from the Venice area, the correlation between fish and fishery product consumption and contaminant concentrations in milk was also explored, with however inconclusive results. The concentrations of PCDDs, PCDFs, dioxin-like PCBs, and organochlorinated pesticides determined in this study were compared with those available from a previous analytical work carried out on 1987 human milk pools of domestic origin: the declining trend of the aforesaid contaminants in milk is confirmed to be in agreement with what was observed in other European countries. The breast milk content of (137)Cs and (40)K radionuclides was also determined and compared with data obtained in other research programmes carried out in Italy: the health risk for breastfed infants was deemed to be not significant.
authors.affiliation: Italian National Institute for Health, I-00161 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Annalisa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Abballe
authors.forename: Terri J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Ballard
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dellatte
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: di Domenico
authors.forename: Fabiola
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ferri
authors.forename: Anna Rita
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Fulgenzi
authors.forename: Giulio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Grisanti
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Iacovella
authors.forename: Anna Maria
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Ingelido
authors.forename: Rainer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Malisch
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Miniero
authors.forename: Maria Grazia
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Porpora
authors.forename: Serena
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Risica
authors.forename: Gianni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ziemacki
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: De Felip
mesh_terms: D002947:Cities; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D018811:Maternal Exposure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019216:Metals, Heavy / Q000032:analysis; D008895:Milk, Human / Q000737:chemistry*; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000032:analysis; D011868:Radioisotopes / Q000032:analysis; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D019216:Metals, Heavy; D009930:Organic Chemicals; D011868:Radioisotopes