Abstract
BackgroundEnvironmental pollutants are known to be ubiquitous and may present toxic effects (endocrine-disruption properties, carcinogenicity …) and represent a real threat to human health. The aim of the present pilot study was to assess the content of environmental pollutants (inorganic, persistent, and non-persistent pollutants) in biological samples (urine, serum, and whole blood), collected from volunteers in Kinshasa, capital of Democratic Republic of Congo, in order to identify pollutants of interest and to design a protocol for a larger scale study.MethodsFrom randomly selected 15 volunteers living in Kinshasa, aged from 25 to 66 years, (mean age = 43.4 years), including 10 men and 5 women, urine, whole blood, and serum samples were used in this study to estimate the contents in these environmental pollutants, using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry, and liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry.ResultsWhen compared to data nationally and internationally available, the preliminary outcomes of this study indicated a very high level of exposure to environmental pollutants in the population of Kinshasa, especially for heavy metals, parabens and triclosan. To a lesser extent, contamination measured for glyphosate, phthalates, organochlorine pesticides, pyrethroids and dialkylphosphate pesticides was also significant. In contrast, the investigated population of Kinshasa was found to be weakly exposed to other persistent organic pollutants like polychlorinated biphenyls, brominated flame retardants, phenolic organohalogens, and perfluoroalkyl substances.ConclusionAlthough the biologic fluids were collected from a limited number of volunteers (n = 15), the results of the present report clearly indicate that the population of Kinshasa is not spared by the investigated environmental pollutants. Moreover, this study gives us important information to design a larger scale study protocol.
Highlights
Environmental pollutants are known to be ubiquitous and may present toxic effects and represent a real threat to human health
For this small pilot biosurveillance study, with the aim to conduct the first exploration of pollutant contamination in the general population of Kinshasa and covering various exposition profiles, volunteers were selected among business sectors, including market gardeners, pesticide vendors, plastic manufacturers, aluminium utensil makers, mechanics, traders, students, lawyers, painters, drivers, teachers, polices, students, fitters, and sanitation technicians
With a median concentration of 0.61 μg/L, the cadmium exposure here reported seemed to be similar to those measured in the above-mentioned study from Lubumbashi [23], but two fold higher than the one reported in Spain, with a median content of 0.29 μg/L [22], and than that stated in two Belgian studies, the first involving a population of 52 men of Ath with a geometric mean of 0.21 μg/L [24], and the second exploring 125 Belgian mothers reporting a median value of 0.22 μg/L [7] (Table 3)
Summary
Environmental pollutants are known to be ubiquitous and may present toxic effects (endocrinedisruption properties, carcinogenicity ...) and represent a real threat to human health. The correlation between the increase in chemical production and that of the chronic disease prevalence has suggested that some chemicals may be responsible of endocrine disruptions, carcinogenicity, or other toxic effects [2,3,4] As these compounds are ubiquitous and can operate at low concentrations, their release in the environment poses a potential threat to human health [5, 6]. Non-persistent organic pollutants (nPOPs) like pyrethroids, alkyl-phosphates, bisphenols, triclosan, phthalates, parabens, glyphosate, and benzophenone, are organic compounds with fast degradation into environment but industrially produced in large amounts and are suspected to be responsible of several dysfunctions of the hormonal systems (reproductive or thyroid system), central nervous system, and in the occurrence of metabolic and chronic diseases [10]
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