Integrated analysis of halogenated organic pollutants in sub-millilitre volumes of venous and umbilical cord blood sera

the samples. Small volumes of reference serum between 50 and 1000 μL were extracted and the limits of detection/ quantification and repeatability were determined. Recoveries of spiked compounds for the extraction of small volumes (≥300 μL) of the spiked reference serum were between 90% and 120%. The coefficients of variation of repeatability ranged from 0.1–14%, depending on the compound. Samples of 4-year-old serum and umbilical cord blood (n=73 and 40, respectively) from a population inhabiting a village near a chloro-alkali plant were screened for the above-mentioned halogenated pollutants using this method and the results are briefly described.
This research was supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III. Red de Grupos INMA(G03/176) and projects PI041666 and GRACCIE Consolider Ingenio Network (CSD2007-00067) from the SpanishMinistry of Science and Innovation. M.H. benefited from an EU “Marie Curie” fellowship. We thank the Laboratory of Retrovirology of the University Hospital “Germans Trias i Pujol” (Autonomous University of Barcelona) for access to samples with hepatitis B or the human immunodeficiency viruses and their analysis.