Levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in human adipose tissue from Baghdad/Iraq

Figures & data

Table 1. Participants' data.

Participants	Sex	Age	Body weight	Smoker? Yes or No	Food type
Sample 1	Male	50 years	50 kg	Yes	Meat
Sample 2	Male	23 years	85 kg	Yes	Vegetarian
Sample 3	Male	35 years	106 kg	No	Vegetarian & meat
Sample 4	Female	22 years	45 kg	No	Vegetarian
Sample 5	Female	29 years	69 kg	No	Vegetarian
Sample 6	Female	22 years	55 kg	No	Vegetarian & meat
Sample 7	Male	60 years	72 kg	No	Meat
Sample 8	Male	48 years	78 kg	Yes	Meat
Sample 9	Female	33 years	87 kg	No	Vegetarian
Sample 10	Female	21 years	92 kg	No	Vegetarian
Sample 11	Female	28 years	56 kg	No	Vegetarian & meat
Sample 12	Male	54 years	60 kg	Yes	Meat
Sample 13	Female	32 years	65 kg	No	Vegetarian & meat
Sample 14	Female	26 years	47 kg	No	Vegetarian & meat
Sample 15	Female	16 years	65 kg	No	Meat
Sample 16	Female	60 years	67 kg	No	Vegetarian & meat
Sample 17	Male	19 years	90 kg	No	Vegetarian & meat
Sample 18	Male	39 years	73 kg	No	Meat
Sample 19	Female	15 years	45 kg	No	Vegetarian
Sample 20	Female	15 years	75 kg	No	Vegetarian

Table 2. Peak number in the chromatogram, retention time (t_R), limits of detection (LOD), and lower limits of quantitation (LOQ) for instrument PCBs standard mixture.

Peak Nr.	Dioxin-like PCBs	Retention time (min)	LOD (μg/L)	LLOQ (μg/kg)
1	3,3′,4,4′-Tetrachlorobiphenyl (PCB-77)	12.4	0.80	2.68
2	3,4,4′,5-Tetrachlorobiphenyl (PCB-81)	12.6	0.78	2.62
3	2,3,3′,4,4′-Pentachlorobiphenyl (PCB-105)	12.8	0.89	2.99
4	2,3,4,4′,5-Pentachlorobiphenyl (PCB-114)	12.9	0.73	2.43
5	2,3′,4,4′,5-Pentachlorobiphenyl (PCB-118)	13.1	0.74	2.49
6	2′,3,4,4′,5-Pentachlorobiphenyl (PCB-123)	13.4	1.15	3.84
7	3,3′,4,4′,5-Pentachlorobiphenyl (PCB-126)	14.1	0.96	3.22
8	2,3,3′,4,4′,5-Hexachlorobiphenyl (PCB-156)	14.3	1.15	3.84
9	2,3,3′,4,4′,5′-Hexachlorobiphenyl (PCB-157)	14.7	1.09	3.66
10	2,3′,4,4′,5,5′-Hexachlorobiphenyl (PCB-167)	14.8	2.41	8.06
11	3,3′,4,4′,5,5′-Hexachlorobiphenyl (PCB-169)	15.5	1.42	4.76
12	2,3,3′,4,4′,5,5′-Heptachlorobiphenyl (PCB-189)	16.0	1.02	3.41

Figure 1. Total concentrations of PCBs in human adipose tissue for Samples 1–20.

Table 3. The TEF values of dioxin-like PCBs^a and the average concentrations of the Samples 1–20 (μg TEQ/kg fresh weight).

PCB # (TEF)^a	Sample 1	Sample 2	Sample 3	Sample 4	Sample 5	Sample 6	Sample 7	Sample 8	Sample 9	Sample 10	Sample 11	Sample 12	Sample 13	Sample 14	Sample 15	Sample 16	Sample 17	Sample 18	Sample 19	Sample 20
PCB-77 (0.0001)	0.0027	0.0041	0.0035	0.0044	0.0031	0.0029	0.0037	0.0058	0.0032	0.0060	0.0038	0.0044	0.0041	0.0033	0.0038	0.0043	0.0031	0.0022	0.0039	0.0036
PCB-81 (0.0003)	0.0048	0.0054	0.0042	0.0087	0.0051	0.0036	0.0044	0.0111	0.0172	0.0057	0.0048	0.0066	0.0111	0.0174	0.0060	0.0081	0.0084	0.0063	0.0072	0.0048
PCB-105 (0.00003)	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
PCB-114 (0.00003)	0.0033	0.0029	0.0022	0.0021	0.0020	0.0022	0.0032	0.0026	0.0019	0.0027	0.0030	0.0028	0.0028	0.0023	0.0029	0.0032	0.0028	0.0025	0.0027	0.0023
PCB-118 (0.00003)	0.0000	0.0000	0.0005	0.0005	0.0000	0.0006	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
PCB-123 (0.00003)	0.0009	0.0007	0.0007	0.0005	0.0005	0.0008	0.0026	0.0008	0.0005	0.0012	0.0008	0.0009	0.0038	0.0010	0.0023	0.0058	0.0039	0.0021	0.0010	0.0006
PCB-126 (0.1000)	7.0646	4.1230	6.5667	0.0000	0.0000	3.5028	12.695	3.2287	0.0000	7.7887	0.0000	6.3828	19.115	86.257	12.073	22.730	17.107	11.983	6.0522	2.4691
PCB-156 (0.00003)	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
PCB-157 (0.00003	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
PCB-167 (0.00003)	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0001	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
PCB-169 (0.0300)	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
PCB-189 (0.00003)	0.0021	0.0024	0.0039	0.0012	0.0019	0.0033	0.0023	0.0024	0.0017	0.0022	0.0013	0.0035	0.0037	0.0025	0.0025	0.0047	0.0032	0.0019	0.0033	0.0023
∑ TEQ	7.060	4.123	6.582	0.0174	0.0126	3.516	12.711	3.251	0.0245	7.806	0.0137	6.401	19.140	86.284	12.090	22.756	17.129	11.998	6.070	2.483

^aAccording to van den Berg et al. (2006).

Figure 2. Frequency percentage of individual congeners of PCBs detected in all 20 human adipose tissue samples.

Figure 3. Comparison of total concentration of PCBs in human adipose tissues from different countries.

Figure 4. Average concentrations (μg/kg) of PCB congeners in human adipose tissue samples with the percentage frequency.

van den Berg M, Birnbaum LS, Denison M, et al. (2006). The 2005 World Health Organization reevaluation of human and Mammalian toxic equivalency factors for dioxins and dioxin-like compounds. Toxicol Sci 93:223–41.

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