Temporal trends in serum concentrations of polychlorinated dioxins, furans, and PCBs among adult women living in Chapaevsk, Russia: a longitudinal study from 2000 to 2009.

BACKGROUND: The present study assessed the temporal trend in serum concentrations of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, dibenzofurans, and biphenyls (PCBs) among residents of a Russian town where levels of these chemicals are elevated due to prior industrial activity. METHODS: Two serum samples were collected from eight adult women (in 2000 and 2009), and analyzed with gas chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry. RESULTS: The average total toxic equivalency (TEQ) decreased by 30% (from 36 to 25 pg/g lipid), and the average sum of PCB congeners decreased by 19% (from 291 to 211 ng/g lipid). Total TEQs decreased for seven of the eight women, and the sum of PCBs decreased for six of eight women. During this nine year period, larger decreases in serum TEQs and PCBs were found in women with greater increases in body mass index. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides suggestive evidence that average serum concentrations of dioxins, furans, and PCBs are decreasing over time among residents of this town.

Contamination of Russian Baltic fish by polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, dibenzofurans and dioxin-like biphenyls.

Nineteen species of fish products caught and produced in the Russian economic zone of the Baltic region in 2002-2005 were analyzed for polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), dibenzofurans (PCDFs) and dioxin-like biphenyls (WHO-PCBs). Freshwater fish had significantly lower PCDD/PCDFs levels than most saltwater fish, except cod's fillet for which TEQ was comparable. In some cases pollutant levels of sea fish tissues essentially exceeded current regulatory values. Concentration of WHO(PCDD/F)-TEQ ranged from 0.06 to 0.57pg/g f.w. for freshwater fish, and from 0.16 to 17.83pg/g f.w. for sea fish. The special concern is caused by the high concentration of dioxin-like PCBs, whose contribution to the WHO-TEQ(PCDD/F,PCB) considerably exceeded that of PCDDs and PCDFs. Concentration of WHO(PCB)-TEQ ranged from 2.56 to 124.40pg/g f.w. Profiles of PCDD/Fs congeners in fish were rather similar: in our opinion, the most probable sources of pollution were chlorine bleaching and outflow of PCBs. There is no real reason to assume that fish contamination was affected by the fungicide Ky-5 or similar chlorophenols mixtures. Relative contributions of each dioxin-like PCBs congener to total TEQ in fish tissue are presented in Fig. 2. Profiles of dioxin-like PCBs in general are close to Aroclor 1254, though in some cases there are essential differences.