Sex, BMI and age in addition to dietary intakes influence blood concentrations and congener profiles of dioxins and PCBs.

SCOPE The aim of this study was to i) characterize dietary polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxin exposure in consumers of fish from the PCB contaminated Lake Mjøsa in Norway ii) examine the influence of demographic factors on blood concentrations and congener composition of dioxins and PCBs, iii) characterize dietary sources and possible exposures above tolerable intake. METHODS AND RESULTS Blood samples were analysed for dioxin-like (dl) compounds (PCDD/Fs and dl-PCBs) and non-dl-PCBs (ndl-PCBs). Dietary exposures were calculated using food frequency questionnaires (n=64). Men had higher median intake of dl-compounds than women (1.2 and 0.85 pg TEQ/kg bw/day), but similar blood concentrations (23.3 and 25.8, pg TEQ/g lipid weight (lw)). For non-dl-PCBs, intakes (6.5 and 4.5 ng/kg bw/day) and blood concentrations (381 and 224 ng/g lw) were higher in men than in women. Blood concentrations correlated with dietary intakes in men only. Increasing BMI and age elevated blood concentrations mainly in women. Men and women had different blood congener profiles, with a higher share of PCB-126 in women, despite similar dietary congener profiles. Eleven participants exceeded the tolerable intake for dl-compounds. Fish from Lake Mjøsa was the main dietary source. CONCLUSION The higher influence of BMI and age for women than for men may have implications for risk assessment.

[1]  P. Grandjean,et al.  Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) induction of CYP3A4 enzyme activity in healthy Faroese adults. , 2007, Toxicology and applied pharmacology.

[2]  Arnold Schecter,et al.  Polybrominated Diphenyl Ether Flame Retardants in the U.S. Population: Current Levels, Temporal Trends, and Comparison With Dioxins, Dibenzofurans, and Polychlorinated Biphenyls , 2005, Journal of occupational and environmental medicine.

[3]  H. Knutsen,et al.  Risk assessment of non dioxin-like PCBs in Norwegian food. Opinion of the Panel on Contaminants of the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety , 2008 .

[4]  Jan Alexander,et al.  Validity of a new food frequency questionnaire for pregnant women in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa). , 2007, Maternal & child nutrition.

[5]  S. Cnattingius,et al.  Persistent organochlorine and organobromine compounds in mother's milk from Sweden 1996-2006: compound-specific temporal trends. , 2009, Environmental research.

[6]  P. Furst,et al.  Exposure of populations to dioxins and related compounds , 2000, Food additives and contaminants.

[7]  Peter Neuhaus,et al.  Sex is a major determinant of CYP3A4 expression in human liver , 2003, Hepatology.

[8]  C. Tohyama,et al.  The 2005 World Health Organization reevaluation of human and Mammalian toxic equivalency factors for dioxins and dioxin-like compounds. , 2006, Toxicological sciences : an official journal of the Society of Toxicology.

[9]  D. Waxman,et al.  Sex Differences in the Expression of Hepatic Drug Metabolizing Enzymes , 2009, Molecular Pharmacology.

[10]  M. F. Reis,et al.  Determinants of dioxins and furans in blood of non-occupationally exposed populations living near Portuguese solid waste incinerators. , 2007, Chemosphere.

[11]  J. Dellinger,et al.  Serum PCB profiles in Native Americans from Wisconsin based on region, diet, age, and gender: Implications for epidemiology studies. , 2006, The Science of the total environment.

[12]  Peter Adriaens,et al.  The University of Michigan Dioxin Exposure Study: Predictors of Human Serum Dioxin Concentrations in Midland and Saginaw, Michigan , 2008, Environmental health perspectives.

[13]  P. Fürst.  Dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls and other organohalogen compounds in human milk. Levels, correlations, trends and exposure through breastfeeding. , 2006, Molecular nutrition & food research.

[14]  C. Hunt,et al.  Effect of age and gender on the activity of human hepatic CYP3A. , 1992, Biochemical pharmacology.

[15]  O. Jolliet,et al.  Apparent Half-Lives of Dioxins, Furans, and Polychlorinated Biphenyls as a Function of Age, Body Fat, Smoking Status, and Breast-Feeding , 2008, Environmental health perspectives.

[16]  L. Hagmar,et al.  Monitoring of Polychlorinated Biphenyls in Human Blood Plasma: Methodological Developments and Influence of Age, Lactation, and Fish Consumption , 1997, Archives of environmental contamination and toxicology.

[17]  C. Thomsen,et al.  Automated solid-phase extraction for the determination of polybrominated diphenyl ethers and polychlorinated biphenyls in serum--application on archived Norwegian samples from 1977 to 2003. , 2007, Journal of chromatography. B, Analytical technologies in the biomedical and life sciences.

[18]  Jan Alexander,et al.  Dietary exposure to brominated flame retardants correlates with male blood levels in a selected group of Norwegians with a wide range of seafood consumption. , 2008, Molecular nutrition & food research.

[19]  Jan Alexander,et al.  Consumption of fish from a contaminated lake strongly affects the concentrations of polybrominated diphenyl ethers and hexabromocyclododecane in serum. , 2008, Molecular nutrition & food research.

[20]  E. Reiner,et al.  Persistent Organochlorine Compounds in Human Milk Collected in Croatia Over Two Decades , 2009, Archives of environmental contamination and toxicology.

[21]  Olaf Päpke,et al.  Role of dietary patterns for dioxin and PCB exposure. , 2009, Molecular nutrition & food research.