Abstract
Young children with their hand-to-mouth activity may be exposed to contaminated soils. However few studies assessing exposure of organic compounds sequestrated in soil were realized. The present study explores the impact of different organic matters on retention of NDL-PCBs during digestive processes using commercial humic substances in a close digestive model of children: the piglet. Six artificial soils were used. One standard soil, devoid of organic matter, and five amended versions of this standard soil with either fulvic acid, humic acid, Sphagnum peat, activated carbon or a mix of Sphagnum peat and activated carbon (95∶5) (SPAC) were prepared. In order to compare the different treatments, we use spiked oil and negative control animals. Forty male piglets were randomly distributed in 7 contaminated and one control groups (n = 5 for each group). During 10 days, the piglets were fed artificial soil or a corn oil spiked with 19 200 ng of Aroclor 1254 per g of dry matter (6 000 ng.g−1 of NDL-PCBs) to achieve an exposure dose of 1 200 ng NDL-PCBs.Kg−1 of body weight per day. NDL-PCBs in adipose tissue were analyzed by GC-MS. Fulvic acid reduced slightly the bioavailability of NDL-PCBs compared to oil. Humic acid and Sphagnum peat reduced it significantly higher whereas activated carbon reduced the most. Piglets exposed to soil containing both activated carbon and Shagnum peat exhibited a lower reduction than soil with only activated carbon. Therefore, treatment groups are ordered by decreasing value of relative bioavailability as following: oil ≥ fulvic acid>Sphagnum peat ≥ Sphagnum peat and activated carbon ≥ Humic acid>>activated carbon. This suggests competition between Sphagnum peat and activated carbon. The present study highlights that quality of organic matter does have a significant effect on bioavailability of sequestrated organic compounds.
Highlights
Numerous epidemiological studies assessing neuropsychological impact of developmental exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have linked neurobehavioral impairments with pre- or early postnatal exposure
The third set exhibited the highest levels of NDL-PCBs and animals from Spiked corn oil 100% (SO) groups exhibited higher concentrations than Standard soil – (SS) and fulvic acid (FA) ones
In contrast to the digestive processes which do not limit the absorption of organic pollutants, the results of this study clearly demonstrate that organic matter (OM) and its characteristics modulate considerably the bioavailability of NDL-PCBs sequestrated in soil
Summary
Numerous epidemiological studies assessing neuropsychological impact of developmental exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have linked neurobehavioral impairments with pre- or early postnatal exposure. Numerous former industrial sites are known to be contaminated by those NDLPCBs [8, 9]. This makes them almost ubiquitous in the environment, mainly in soil. Assessing exposure to pollutants from contaminated soils is an important issue in terms of safety management. In order to achieve a quantity of PCBs relative to body weight under experimental conditions comparable to contaminated soil ingested by toddlers, the juvenile swine appears to be a valuable model. With a relative similarity of physiology, growth and absorptive mechanisms than humans, swine model is more and more used to study oral bioavailability of pollutants in ingested soil [10, 11, 13]
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