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The objective of this study was to investigate changes in the levels of common organochlorines (OCs) and lipids in maternal serum during and after pregnancy. A subset of 50 pregnant women from the North Norwegian Mother-and-Child Study was included in this study. Blood samples were collected during the 2ndtrimester and postpartum (Day 3 and 6 weeks) in different regions of Northern Norway, and were analyzed for the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) suite of OC contaminants. During the gestational period, both lipids and wet-weight OC levels peaked at birth and were the lowest at 6 weeks postpartum. When the OC concentrations were lipid-adjusted, this peaking was no longer evident. Wet-weight concentrations of OCs appear to be driven by the physiological lipid profiles and are interpreted to constitute biomarkers of lipidemia. It is suggested that this observation may have implications for the biomonitoring of individuals at risk of Type 2 diabetes. Both age and parity were strong predictors for the OCs measured, but no consistent association with body mass index (BMI) was evident. Independent of lipid-adjustment, all compounds were positively and significantly correlated with each other (within and across the three collection time periods). The peaking of OCs during pregnancy suggests that the period spanning the last weeks of the 3rdtrimester and the early postpartum days constitutes an optimum sampling window purely from the analytical perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is limited information about both environmental and human perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) concentrations in the southern hemisphere, and for the first time, concentrations of these compounds are reported in maternal serum and cord blood of South African women. The majority of the participants were of African Black ethnicity, with a similar socioeconomic status. In maternal serum perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) was found to be the most abundant PFC (1.6 ng mL−1), followed by perfluorooctanoate (PFOA: 1.3 ng mL−1) and perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS: 0.5 ng mL−1); however, in cord blood PFOA was the most abundant compound (1.3 ng mL−1) followed by PFOS (0.7 ng mL−1) and PFHxS (0.3 ng mL−1). Linear PFOS constituted 58% of the sum of PFOS, comparable with a reported percentage from Australia. Differences in PFC concentrations between communities were found, with the highest concentrations in urban and semi-urban areas. The median maternal PFOS concentration was lower than has been reported in other studies, whereas the PFOA concentration was the same. This clearly indicates that the exposure pathway is different from the western world. Significant differences in housing quality were observed and the urban and sub-urban community had the highest living and housing standards. Possible exposure pathways could be different from those elucidated in the western world with the exception of the urban community in our study that showed higher living standards in general and easier access to modern consumer products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The associations between age, body mass index (BMI), parity, place of residence (coastal or inland) and plasma concentrations of perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) were assessed in a study population from south central Vietnam. The study group consisted of 91 delivering women of varied age (18–40 years) from two different locations (37 urban, 36 rural and 18 with unknown residence). Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) and perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS) were detected in 98–100% of all samples. PFOS (median 3.2 ng/ml) was the most common compound followed by PFOA (median 1.6 ng/ml), PFHxS (median 0.7 ng/ml) and perfluorononanoate (PFNA) (median 0.7 ng/ml). The women from the coastal city Nha Trang had higher concentrations of all investigated compounds than women from the inland district Dien Khanh. The two study locations are situated only 10 km apart and the diet is considered somewhat similar, however, women in Dien Khanh are more self-sufficient with locally produced food. The family income in Nha Trang is also most likely higher than in Dien Khanh and this may affect living conditions, e.g.quality of housing, which in turn may influence the exposure to PFCs. There were no associations between age, parity or BMI and the investigated PFCs. Linear PFOS constituted 83% of the sum of PFOS. This is considerably higher than reported in other studies from Europe and Australia and may indicate differences in exposure sources between countries, or differences in exposure time and persistency of the different isomers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]