Cited by 123Toxic Organic Pollutants ImpactEffects and risks of endocrine disrupting chemicalsPesticide Exposure and Toxicity

Body burden of POPs of Hong Kong residents, based on human milk, maternal and cord serum

Tsang, Hin L., Wu, Shengchun, Leung, Clement K.M., Tao, S., Wong, Ming H.·2011·Environment International

Abstract

This study is one of the very few investigating the body burdens of persistent organic pollutants in residents of Hong Kong. Twenty-nine human milk samples and 21 human blood (and cord blood) samples collected from 2005 were analyzed for PAHs, OCPs and PCBs levels. Higher levels of PAHs, DDTs and PCBs were detected in human milk samples when compared to maternal serum and cord serum (PAHs: milk: 1981 ng g⁻¹ fat, maternal serum: 1461, cord serum: 1158; DDTs: 3099, 1934, 1556; PCBs: 49, 41, 40). Among the 16 PAHs, naphthalene (human milk: 786 ng g⁻¹ fat, maternal serum: 331, cord serum: 348), phenanthrene (361, 144, 193), pyrene (187, 154, 98) and fluoranthene (158, 128, 89) were the major PAHs detected in three human tissues. p,p'-DDE and p,p'-DDT were the only metabolites of DDT detected in the three types of human tissues. High detection rate of the p,p'-DDE and p,p'-DDT (> 90%) were noted in the three types of human samples. On the contrary, low detection frequency of PCBs in human milk (10.7%), maternal serum (1.7%) and cord serum (0.8%) were observed. The correlation coefficients of the PAHs, DDTs and PCBs levels in the three types of human tissues together with fish consumption, maternal age and tissue fat were analyzed. The following significant correlations were observed: Σ DDTs and p,p'-DDE in human milk with consumption of freshwater and marine fish, and maternal age; Σ PCBs in human milk with marine fish consumption, and maternal age; Σ PAHs in human milk with maternal age, respectively. The estimated daily intakes of DDTs by infants indicated that 7 out of 29 of the human milk samples exceeded 20 ng g⁻¹ day⁻¹, the tolerable daily intake (TDI) proposed by the Health Canada Guideline in terms of DDTs levels. The high intake of DDTs by infants may be of concern as infants are more susceptible to the adverse effects imposed by various environmental contaminants. Human milk is a reliable and comparatively non-invasive tool for monitoring body loading of POPs, which also allows health risk assessment of residual chemicals on our next generation.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.envint.2010.08.010

Cites

93 of 93 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • PAHs and their metabolites can be found in the blood of adults, children and neonates, as well as in urine and maternal milk.

    “Advances in bioanalytical methods have now revealed that PAHs and their metabolites can be found in the blood of adults,24, 25, 26, 27 children28, 29 and neonates,26, 30 as well as in urine18, 31, 32, 33 and maternal milk.26”

    From The impact of airborne pollution on skin (2019) · cites this paper as [26]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Tsang, H. L., Wu, S., Leung, C. K. M., Tao, S., & Wong, M. H.
Affiliations
  • Hong Kong Baptist University (HK)
  • Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital (HK)
  • Peking University (CN)
Corresponding author
Wong, Ming H.
Venue
Environment International
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2011-01
Volume
37
Issue
1
Pages
142-151
ISSN
0160-4120 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W1975981440
Cited by
123
References
92
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 3
FWCI
4.83
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Environment International (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Toxic Organic Pollutants Impact
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Effects and risks of endocrine disrupting chemicals
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Pesticide Exposure and Toxicity
Keywords
persistent organic pollutants, body burden, breast milk, maternal serum, cord serum, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, DDT, p,p'-DDE, p,p'-DDT, polychlorinated biphenyls, fish consumption, maternal age, estimated daily intake, tolerable daily intake, infant exposure, Hong Kong residents, naphthalene, phenanthrene
MeSH terms
Adult, Body Burden, Dichlorodiphenyl Dichloroethylene, DDT, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Pollutants, Female, Fetal Blood, Hong Kong, Humans, Hydrocarbons, Chlorinated, Infant, Newborn, Milk, Human, Pesticides, Polychlorinated Biphenyls, Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, Maternal Exposure

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review