ORGANOCHLORINE PESTICIDE CONTAMINATIONS IN HUMAN-MILK SAMPLES FROM WOMEN LIVING IN AMMAN, JORDAN

Concentrations of 15 organochlorine pesticides were determined by capillary gas chromatography in 59 human milk samples collected from the general population during 1989/1990 in the Jordanian capital of Amman. In addition to hexachlorbenzene (HCB), three groups of organochlorine compounds namely, DDT and its metabolites, hexachlorcyclohexane (HCH-isomers) and the cyclopentadiene group (aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, and heptachlor epoxide) were analyzed. The results show that almost all samples contained HCB, beta-HCH, p,p'-DDE and p,p'-DDT, whereas p,p'-DDD, heptachlor, alpha-HCH, gamma-HCH and o,p' DDT were found in 42, 40, 33, 22 and 20 analyzed samples, respectively. The concentration of HCB, beta-HCH, p,p'-DDE, p,p'-DDT and heptachlor expressed on a milk-fat basis (median in mg/kg milk fat): 0.29, 0.4, 2.04, and 0.7 respectively. For the comparative purposes and in order to try to find the possible sources of mother-milk contaminations, different types of locally produced and imported cow milk samples were also analyzed for the same organochlorine compounds. Almost all types of tested milk were contaminated with p,p'-DDE.