Evaluation of short chain chlorinated paraffins in human milk and their intake by infants in Hebei Province, China

ABSTRACT

Short-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs) have drawn increasing interest worldwide since they were included in the list of controlled persistent organic pollutants in Annex A of the Stockholm Convention in 2017, and the potential health risk they pose to humans must be evaluated. In this study, 86 human milk samples were collected from 55 healthy Chinese mothers living in the Shijiazhuang region of Northern China in 2014–2015. Advanced online gel permeation chromatography–gas-chromatography-coupled mass spectrometry with negative-ion chemical ionisation was used to quantify the SCCPs in the samples. The estimated mean level of SCCPs was 2.51 μg g⁻¹ lipid weight (range 0.21–16.12). The SCCP concentration correlated positively with the mother’s bodyweight at the end of pregnancy (P < 0.05). The mean SCCP intake by infants via breast milk was 13.0 μg kg⁻¹ day⁻¹ at 1 month, 7.1 μg kg⁻¹ day⁻¹ at 3 months, and 2.5 μg kg⁻¹ day⁻¹ at 6 months after birth. This study provides initial data on the levels of SCCPs in human milk in a chlorinated-paraffin-manufacturing area in China, and indicates a high health risk for infants.

Graphical Abstract

KEYWORDS:

• Short-chain chlorinated paraffin
• GPC–GC–ENCI/MS
• human milk
• infant intake

Acknowledgments

We thank all the milk donors and hospital staff for collecting the study samples.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Bureau of Science and Technology of Hebei Province [16275510D].