QuEChERS extraction coupled to GC-MS for a fast determination of polychlorinated biphenyls in breast milk from Polish women

Martyna Pajewska-Szmyt,Elena Sinkiewicz-Darol,Renata Gadzała-Kopciuch,Tomasz Kowalkowski,Bogusław Buszewski,Urszula Bernatowicz-Łojko

doi:10.1007/s11356-019-06201-y

Abstract

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in breast milk has been determined. Therefore, it was necessary to develop and adapt an analytical method to analyze PCB compounds. The whole procedure was applied to 31 breast milk samples, which were collected from Polish mothers. The QuEChERS method was optimized as a fast and cheap sample preparation method. The procedure allowed us to obtain recovery values between 96.46% and 119.98% with acceptable relative standard deviations (3.36–12.71%). Gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used for final determination. The method was validated using parameters such as linearity, limit of detection and quantification, intra-day precision, and reproducibility. The mean concentration of ∑iPCBs in this study was 30.94 ng/g of lipid. Assigned daily intake of PCBs was lower than the tolerable daily intake, which shows that the analyzed milk is safe to the infants. However, the monitoring of PCBs in milk is still important, and the QuEChERS method with GC-MS can be an effective tool for tracking organic impurities in breast milk.

Highlights

The presence of environmental pollutants is very dangerous for living organisms as these impurities can cause significant health problems
The first attempt—when Luzardo’s QuEChERS procedure was applied (Luzardo et al 2013) for sample extraction— was unsuccessful because numerous interferences appeared in the extraction solution, which significantly decreased the limit of detection
Estimated daily intake of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) was lower than the tolerable daily intake

Summary

Introduction

The presence of environmental pollutants is very dangerous for living organisms as these impurities can cause significant health problems. Organic contaminants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) belong to the group of halogenated aromatic hydrocarbons. These compounds are made up of two phenyl rings with attached chlorine atoms (between 1 and 10) (Andersson et al 1997). Environ Sci Pollut Res (2019) 26:30988–30999 ortho, and non-ortho substituted PCBs. The last two groups can bind to the Ah receptor and their toxicity is similar to that of dioxin (Ulaszewska et al 2011)

Methods

Results

Conclusion