Comparative study of persistent organic pollutant (POP) (chlorinated pesticides, PCBs, and dioxins/furans) concentrations in cancer-affected human organs with those of healthy organs

Abstract

The concentrations of POPs (persistent organic pollutants) including 16 compounds of OCPs, 12 dioxin-like PCBs congeners, and 17 PCDDs/Fs congeners were determined in 46 human adipose tissue samples gathered from Jordanian citizens. Thirteen adipose tissue samples of healthy people were collected from Jordan University Hospital and 33 adipose tissue samples of cancer-affected patients were collected from King Hussein Cancer Center. All samples were extracted, cleaned-up, and analyzed using GC/MS. In the healthy person's samples, among the OCP compounds, the highest concentration was found for heptachlor-oxo-epoxide (5696.71μg/kg), while among the PCB congeners, the non-ortho PCB 126 shows the highest TEQ concentrations (5554.5μgTEQ/kg) and among the PCDDs/Fs congeners, the highest TEQ value was found for the congener 2,3,4,7,8-PeCDFs (5.93μgTEQ/kg). For the cancer-affected patient's samples, the highest concentration among the OCP compounds was found for o,p-DDT (638.7μg/kg), while among the PCBs congeners, the highest TEQ value was found for the non-ortho-PCB 126 (3366.24μgTEQ/kg) and among the PCDDs/Fs congeners, the highest TEQ value was found for the congener 1,2,3,7,8-PeCDDs (20.64μgTEQ/kg). OCP concentration level in adipose tissue samples for healthy people was 32 times higher than for cancer patient persons, while the TEQ values for dioxin-like PCB concentrations in adipose tissue samples of healthy people was 2.2 times higher than in the samples of cancer-affected patient and the TEQ values for PCDDs/Fs in adipose tissue samples of cancer-affected patient was 3 times higher than in the samples of healthy people.