Pesticide Residues in Mother’s Milk - Pesticides: Evaluation of Environmental Pollution - page 543

17
Pesticide R esidues in Mother's Milk
M. Paramasivam, J. Rajeswaran, S. Chandrasekaran, and S. Kuttalam
CONTENTS
17.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 543
17.2 Characteristics of Organochlorine Pesticides ................................................................544
17.3 Sources of Pesticide Residues in Mother's Milk ............................................................ 546
17.4 Hazards of Pesticide Residues in Mother's Milk........................................................... 547
17.4.1 Types of Exposure and Hazards.......................................................................... 547
17.4.2 Assessment of Human Exposure ........................................................................ 547
17.4.3 Bioaccumulation and Biomagnification of Pesticides....................................... 547
17.5 Methods for Analysis of Organochlorine Pesticides in Mother's Milk ..................... 549
17.6 Residues in Human Milk.................................................................................................. 549
17.6.1 Pesticide Residues in the General Population ................................................... 549
17.6.2 Pesticide Residues in the Indian Population...................................................... 551
17.6.3 Levels of OCPs in the Asian Population............................................................. 553
17.6.4 Levels of OCPs in the World Population ............................................................ 558
17.6.5 Variation Associated with Parity and Age......................................................... 561
17.7 Trends in Mother's Milk Residues................................................................................... 564
17.8 Perspective and Recommendation .................................................................................. 565
References..................................................................................................................................... 566
17.1 Introduction
Many chemical contaminants, particularly those that are lipophilic and of relatively low
molecular weight, can accumulate in breast milk (Zhou et al. 2011). These contaminants
arise from two broad categories: persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and organochlo-
rine pesticides (OCPs). Both of them are generally stable toxicants and bioaccumulative
and thus often ubiquitous in the environment. OCPs and POPs were extensively used in
the past for agricultural, vector control, and industrial purposes for several decades. The
potential health effects of these contaminants on both mother and child are of great con-
cern, making it important to carefully monitor the contaminant levels and trends. More
studies have been conducted in this area, but most of them are confined to small locations;
therefore, it may not necessarily represent the actual population of the country where sam-
pling was done. In addition, majority of these studies are restricted to the same panel of
POPs, and therefore, the new or rising trends in contaminants that may impede effective
public health responses are ignored.
Levels of contaminants in mother's milk are associated with age, duration of lactation,
food habits, and local use pattern of the chemical, and hence mixing of breast milk samples
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