Occurrence and human exposure of PCDD/Fs and dioxin-like PCBs in house dust from Busan, Korea: Comparison with seafood consumption

Abstract

Information on human exposure to polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (DL-PCBs) via dust ingestion is scarce. Concentrations of PCDD/Fs and DL-PCBs were determined in house dust collected from Korea, to investigate the occurrence and human exposure to these contaminants. The concentrations of total toxic equivalents (TEQs) in our samples ranged from 0.22 to 11.6 (median: 1.73) pg TEQ/g dry weight, which were lower than those found in other countries. The predominant homologue or congener was octachlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin and furan (OCDD/F) in all the samples, suggesting a possibility of multiple sources (e.g. combustion process, textiles and cigarette smoke) of PCDD/Fs in indoor environments. Estimated daily intakes (EDIs) of total TEQs via dust ingestion were 0.056 pg TEQ/day for adults (>20 years) and 0.14 pg TEQ/day for toddlers (<2 years), which were 2–3 orders of magnitude lower than the EDIs of total TEQs via seafood consumption. Our results suggest that dust ingestion could be negligible to the total TEQ exposures for the Korean population. This is the first study on human exposure of PCDD/Fs and DL-PCBs via dust ingestion in the Korean population.