Organochlorine pesticides in adipose tissue of nicaraguan mothers

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Ninety three mothers living in the basin of the Atoya River, Chinantega, Nicaragua, provided samples of adipose tissue of the abdominal region that were collected during gyneco‐obstetrical (64), and colecystectomy (29) surgeries. The abdominal fat samples were analyzed for the following pesticides: pp'‐DDT; pp'‐DDE; pp'‐DDD; α‐HCH; β‐HCH; Lindane; δ‐HCH; Toxaphene, Dieldrin; Endrin; Aldrin; Heptachlor; Heptachlorepoxide. The occurrence of pesticides was far more common in the class of the dichlorodiphenylethane, where they were present in all samples. Hexachlorocyclohexanes (α— > ß— > y—) as well as chlorinated cyclodienes (Dieldrin>Endrin>Heptachlor‐epoxide>heptachIor) occurred in below 13% of the samples. The highest mean concentrations were found for pp'‐DDE and pp'‐DDT (1.662 μg g‐1 of fat and 0.082 μg g‐1 of fat, respectively). For these dichlorodiphenylethanes statistical analyses of data showed significant effects only for maternal age (pp'‐DDE, p=0.0004). No measurable concentrations were found for δ‐HCH, Aldrin, pp'‐DDD, Toxaphene. The other pesticides showed low mean concentrations that ranged from 1 to 3 ppb in the HCH family and in the order of 0 to 5 ppb in the cyclodiene group.

This publication has 11 references indexed in Scilit: