Risk assessment for children exposed to DDT residues in various milk types from the Greek market

• Published in: Food and chemical toxicology 2015-01, Vol.75, p.156-165
• Main Authors: Tsakiris, Ioannis N., Goumenou, Marina, Tzatzarakis, Manolis N., Alegakis, Athanasios K., Tsitsimpikou, Christina, Ozcagli, Eren, Vynias, Dionysios, Tsatsakis, Aristidis M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Child; Child, Preschool; DDT; DDT - analysis; DDT - toxicity; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Environmental Exposure; Exposure assessment; Food Contamination - analysis; Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; GC-MS; Greece; Humans; Infant; Milk; Milk - chemistry; Organochlorine pesticides; Pesticide Residues - analysis; Pesticide Residues - toxicity; Reproducibility of Results; Risk Assessment
• ISSN: 0278-6915; 1873-6351
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fct.2014.11.012

•DDT residues have been monitored for Greek market milk samples & related risk has been assessed on 1- to 12-year-old children.•Monitoring of DDT residues showed an observable but not explainable difference in milks with different lipid content.•Carcinogenic & non-carcinogenic risk calculation approaches indicate that highest HI values are at ages of 1–3 years old.•HI values indicate that there is no significant risk for children related with DDTs via dietary milk consumption. The occurrence of residues of DDT and its metabolites was monitored in 196 cow milk samples of various pasteurized commercial types collected from the Greek market. Residue levels were determined by GC-MS analysis. In 97.4% of the samples at least one DDT isomer or one of the DDT metabolites was detected, in levels not exceeding the maximum permitted residue level by the EU. Hazard Index for both carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic effects was estimated under two assumptions: a) using DDT concentrations from positive samples and b) imputing LOD/2 as an arbitrary concentration for negative samples. No statistically significant differences in detected or summed residue (p > 0.05) concentrations between different milk types were observed, with the exception of specific metabolites of DDT in some milk types. Exposure assessment scenarios were developed for children aged 1, 3, 5, 7 and 12 years old based on estimated body weights and daily milk consumption. Hazard Indices for non-carcinogenic effects were below 0.109 covering also carcinogenic effects according to WHO approach. The cancer risk values for carcinogenic effects according to the US EPA Cancer Benchmark Concentration approach, ranged from 0.4 to 18. For both effects the highest values were calculated for the 1- to 3-year-old age groups.