Prevalent Organochlorine Pesticides Research Articles

Level of endosulfan among women in Talwandi Sabo Block of Southern Punjab, India.

Endosulfan is one of the most prevalent organochlorine pesticides used in the agricultural sector in the developing countries including India. It affects the physiological functioning of different organ systems including nervous, immune, hepatic, and reproductive system. Realizing the safety and health concern, restrictions have been imposed at various levels, but the usage has still continued in the plantation crops. Owing to pesticide beneficiary of north India, the cotton belt commonly called the Malwa region of Punjab was evaluated for identifying the levels of Endosulfan in the blood samples of women working in agricultural fields. Gas chromatograph with electron capture detector was used for detecting the levels of endosulfan metabolites among twenty active female workers. The mean level of endosulfan recorded in the tested population was observed to be 2.22 ppb. It is difficult to draw a certain conclusion based on these findings because the subjects were less in number. However, detection of even very low concentrations of endosulfan residues signifies its continued accessibility to the women population. Encouragement of more such population-based research needs to be adopted to determine the body burden of such pesticides in humans. The effective implementation of the ban on Endosulfan could be checked by a combined retrospective and prospective study to infer a justifiable impact.

Organochlorine Pesticides Exposure and Bladder Cancer: Evaluation from a Gene-Environment Perspective in a Hospital-Based Case-Control Study in the Canary Islands (Spain)

ABSTRACTThe incidence of bladder cancer has increased significantly since the 1950s. Pesticide exposure has been linked with increasing bladder cancer incidence, although the evidence is inconclusive. However, most epidemiological studies did not evaluate the potential role played by the organochlorine pesticides, the most widely used pesticides in Western countries from the 1940s to the 1970s. Organochlorine pesticides were banned in the late 1970s because of their persistence in the environment and their carcinogenic and mutagenic effects. Organochlorine pesticides were employed in huge amounts in the Spanish archipelago of the Canary Islands; the authors, therefore, evaluated the role played by organochlorine pesticides exposure on bladder cancer. Serum levels of the most prevalent organochlorine pesticides used in the agriculture of these Islands (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane [p,p’-DDT], and its metabolites dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene [p,p’-DDE] and dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane [p,p’-DDD], hexachlorobenzene, hexachlorocyclohexane isomers, aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, cis-chlordane, trans-chlordane, α- and β-endosulfan, endosulfan sulfate, methoxychlor, and mirex) were measured in 140 bladder cancer cases and 206 controls. GST-M1 and GST-T1 gene polymorphisms were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based methods. These results showed that serum levels of organochlorine pesticides did not increase bladder cancer risk. On the contrary, total burden of hexachlorocyclohexanes was found to be negatively associated to bladder cancer (odds ratio [OR] = 0.929, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.865–0.997; P = .041). This effect disappeared when the distribution of the gluthathione S-transferase polymorphisms was introduced in the statistical model. These results indicate that organochlorine pesticides are not a risk factor for bladder cancer. However, these findings provide additional evidence of gene-environment interactions for organochlorine pesticides and bladder cancer and reinforce the relevance of genes encoding xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes in bladder cancer.

In vitro evaluation of oestrogenic/androgenic activity of the serum organochlorine pesticide mixtures previously described in a breast cancer case–control study

Some organochlorine pesticides (OCs) have been individually linked to breast cancer (BC) because they exert oestrogenic effects on mammary cells. However, humans are environmentally exposed to more or less complex mixtures of these organochlorines, and the biological effects of these mixtures must be elucidated. In this work we evaluated the in vitro effects exerted on human BC cells by the OC mixtures that were most frequently detected in two groups of women who participated in a BC case–control study developed in Spain: healthy women and women diagnosed with BC. The cytotoxicity, oestrogenicity, and androgenicity of the most prevalent OC mixtures found in healthy women (H-mixture) and in BC patients (BC-mixture) were tested at concentrations that resembled those found in the serum of the evaluated women. Our results showed that both OC mixtures presented a similar oestrogenic activity and effect on cell viability, but BC-mixture showed an additional anti-androgenic effect. These results indicate that although the proliferative effect exerted by these mixtures on human breast cells seems to depend mainly on their oestrogenic action, the BC-mixture might additionally induce cell proliferation due to its anti-androgenic activity, therefore increasing the carcinogenic potential of this mixture. The findings of this study demonstrate that subtle variations in the composition of a mixture may induce relevant changes in its biological action.

Organochlorine pesticides accumulated by SPMD-based virtual organisms and feral fish in Three Gorges Reservoir, China

Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) accumulated by semipermeable membrane device (SPMD) -based virtual organisms (VOs) and local feral fish were studied in Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR), China. VOs were deployed at seven sites in TGR for two periods in 2009 and 5 species of fish with different living habitats and feeding habits collected in the same periods from two counties in TGR. 28 OCPs were analyzed and the concentration and profile of OCPs in fish were quite different from those in VOs. The lipid-based concentrations of OCPs in fish ranged from 225.7 ng/g lw to 1996.4 ng/g lw which were much higher than those in VOs which ranged from 17.3 to 112.4 ng/g lw. Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes (DDTs) were the prevalent OCPs in the investigated fish, while hexachlorobenzene (HCB) was the dominant compound in VOs. DDT in the few fish sample analyzed was not of concern based on chemical contaminant limits of non-carcinogenic effect.

Estimation of Daily Intake of Organohalogenated Contaminants from Food Consumption and Indoor Dust Ingestion in Romania

We estimated human exposure to organohalogenated contaminants (OHCs), including organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), such as hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs), DDT and metabolites, hexachlorobenzene, and chlordanes, but also polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), through food consumption (mainly food of animal origin) and indoor dust ingestion in Romania. A total of 71 food samples (meat, diary products, vegetable cooking oil, and eggs from urban supermarkets and rural areas) and 18 indoor dust samples were collected from Iasi, Eastern Romania. HCHs and DDTs were the most prevalent OCPs in both food and dust samples. Higher levels of OCPs were measured in food samples collected from rural areas compared to those from urban supermarkets, except milk-based products for which no significant differences could be recorded. However, levels of contamination with HCHs in milk-based products were occasionally higher than current European maximum residue levels (MRLs). Above-MRL levels of DDTs were also recorded in eggs from rural areas. In dust, DDTs (median concentration of 1050 ng/g) were the most prevalent contaminants and p,p'-DDT was consistently the main contributor of sum DDTs, with a contribution between 50 and 75%. Surprisingly, OCPs, mainly DDT, were found at elevated levels in indoor dust samples (median concentrations for sum OCPs of 1200 ng/g dust). This suggests the importance of dust as an exposure route for pesticides (especially at contaminated sites), since dust is not commonly considered in exposure assessments for these chemicals. The main contributor to the sum PBDEs in dust samples was BDE 209 (median concentration of 495 ng/g), with a contribution between 94 and 99%. We estimated that the dietary intake of SigmaHCHs and SigmaDDTs is high for both adults (1500-2100 ng/day) and toddlers (1100-1500 ng/day), while the PCB dietary intake was estimated at 200 ng/day for adults, being compared to other European studies. The contribution of dust ingestion to the daily intake of PBDEs is increased in comparison to intake of other chlorinated contaminants, while food consumption seems to be more important than dust for the HBCD intake. However, neither BDE 209 nor HBCD were measured at levels above method LOQ in any food samples and their dietary intake is probably overestimated because nondetects were replaced by (1)/(2) LOQ. The estimated intakes obtained in the present study are in good agreement with the higher concentrations of OCPs and the low levels of PBDEs reported recently in Romanian human samples.

Occurrence and source identification of organochlorine pesticides in the surrounding surface soils of the Ittehad Chemical Industries Kalashah Kaku, Pakistan

Surface soil and sediment samples were collected from the surroundings of the Ittehad Chemical Industries Kalashah Kaku industrial zone to assess residual level of 19 organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and identify their sources. DDTs and HCHs were most prevalent OCPs and general pattern of contamination followed the order: ∑DDT > ∑HCH > dicofol > endrin > heptachlor > dieldrin > endosulfan II. Total measured concentrations of HCHs (6.38–121.71 ng/g) and DDTs (759.65–1811.98 ng/g) were greater in the soil samples collected from fodder/rice fields irrigated with the factory effluents and in the surrounding of waste disposal site. Ratios of β to γ-HCH highlighted an old mixed source of technical HCH and lindane in surface soils. Predominance of p,p′-DDT and p,p′-DDE among isomers and metabolites showed that large quantity of technical grade DDT is still present in the surrounding surface soils. Six soil samples were categorized as heavy polluted soils (class III category of DDT > 1,000 ng/g), two soil samples into less polluted soil between class I and II (50–500 ng/g) and 28 soil samples as non-polluted (<50 ng/g) according to environmental quality standards for surface soils. Six soil samples were categorized as less polluted between class I and II of HCHs (50–500 ng/g). Greater concentration of DDTs and HCHs above quality guideline poses potential exposure risk to biological organisms, safety of agricultural products and human health in the surrounding of the Ittehad Chemical Industries.

Concentration distribution of polychlorinated biphenyls and organochlorine pesticides and their relationship with temperature in rural air of Korea

Abstract Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) concentrations were measured every other week from July 1999 to February 2000 in the rural air of Ansung, Kyonggi-do in South Korea. The average contribution of PCB homologs were tri-(44.5%), tetra-(23.6%), penta-(21.6%), hexa-(3.6%), hepta-(5.5%) and deca-CB (1.6%) therefore identifying tri-CBs as the main component of PCB homologs. Endosulfan is the most prevalent OCP because of its continuous usage as a pesticide in South Korea. The correlation coefficient between OCPs and temperature was significantly high (p The Clausius–Clapeyron equation was applied to atmospheric total PCBs and OCPs (α-HCH and γ-HCH), relating partial pressure (ln P) to inverse temperature (1/T). The partial pressure of total PCBs and OCPs were all significantly correlated with inverse temperature (p

Analysis of breast milk to assess exposure to chlorinated contaminants in Kazakstan: PCBs and organochlorine pesticides in southern Kazakstan.

Organochlorine pesticides (OC) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were measured in samples of breast milk taken from 92 donors representative of regional populations in southern Kazakstan. The World Health Organization protocol for assessing levels of chlorinated contaminants in breast milk was followed. The most prevalent OC residues were beta-hexachlorocyclohexane (beta-HCH), p,p'-DDE, p,p'-DDT, hexachlorobenzene, and alpha-HCH. The measured levels of beta-HCH were among the highest reported in the published literature. Data from Aralsk, near the Aral Sea, indicated continuing DDT exposure. Overall PCB-toxic equivalent levels (22 pg/g fat) were similar to those reported in industrialized European countries. PCBs were highest in Atyrau in the Caspian oilfields.

Air pollution and asthma

Some organochlorine pesticides (OCs) have been individually linked to breast cancer (BC) because they exert oestrogenic effects on mammary cells. However, humans are environmentally exposed to more or less complex mixtures of these organochlorines, and the biological effects of these mixtures must be elucidated. In this work we evaluated the in vitro effects exerted on human BC cells by the OC mixtures that were most frequently detected in two groups of women who participated in a BC case–control study developed in Spain: healthy women and women diagnosed with BC. The cytotoxicity, oestrogenicity, and androgenicity of the most prevalent OC mixtures found in healthy women (H-mixture) and in BC patients (BC-mixture) were tested at concentrations that resembled those found in the serum of the evaluated women. Our results showed that both OC mixtures presented a similar oestrogenic activity and effect on cell viability, but BC-mixture showed an additional anti-androgenic effect. These results indicate that although the proliferative effect exerted by these mixtures on human breast cells seems to depend mainly on their oestrogenic action, the BC-mixture might additionally induce cell proliferation due to its anti-androgenic activity, therefore increasing the carcinogenic potential of this mixture. The findings of this study demonstrate that subtle variations in the composition of a mixture may induce relevant changes in its biological action.