ORGANOHALOGEN COMPOUNDS Vol. 58 (2002) 261 HUMAN EXPOSURE II STORAGE OF PERSISTENT ORGANOCHLORINE INSECTICIDES IN ADIPOSE BREAST TISSUE OF POLISH WOMEN IN 1997-2001 Pawel Strucinski 1 , Jan K. Ludwicki 1 , Katarzyna Goralczyk 1 , Wlodzimierz Olszewski 2 , Katarzyna Czaja 1 , Brian Buckley 3 , Jozef Jethon 4 , Joanna Baranska 2 and Agnieszka Hernik 1 1 Department of Environmental Toxicology, National Institute of Hygiene, 24 Chocimska Street, 00-791 Warsaw, Poland 2 Department of Pathology, Maria Sklodowska-Curie Institute of Oncology, Warsaw, Poland 3 Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA 4 Department of Plastic Surgery, Medical Center of Postgraduate Education, Warsaw, Poland Introduction Although manufacture and use of chlorinated insecticides was discontinued in Europe (including Poland) in the 1970s, the residues of these compounds are still detected in samples originating from all ecosystems. These insecticides, due to their resistancy to biotransformation, long half-lives, and lipophilic properties, have biomagnified up through the food chains. Their highest levels are, usually found in adipose tissue of beings at the top of the food chains, including humans 1, 2 . The presence of organochlorine pesticides, especially DDTs, HCHs, PCBs, and dioxins in the environment has generated public and scientific discussion about related toxicological implications for human health. In the last decade the debate has increased about concerning their potential role in disrupting the human endocrine system and related adverse health effects as they have been shown to exhibit estrogenic or antiestrogenic activity in biological tests 3-5 . Despite the ban of most of persistent organochlorine compounds in developed countries for almost 30 years, and slow but constant decline of their levels in the environment, the interest in human exposure to these compounds continues. Methods and materials The purpose of this study was to survey the current levels of selected organochlorine insecticides and their isomers and metabolites in women’s breast adipose tissue which can be an indicator of body burden. A total of 67 samples of adipose tissue from women’s breasts were assayed. The samples were taken from non-cancer patients undergoing plastic or benign breast disease surgery from 1997 to 2001 in two Warsaw’s hospitals. The majority of donors lived in Warsaw or the Warsaw area, and were from 15 up to 74 years (average 43,7"13,6; see the age structure shown in Fig. 1). The adipose tissue samples were kept frozen at -20 ºC until analysis. The identification and quantification of compounds analyzed ("-, $-, (-, *-HCH, oxy-chlordane, heptachlor, p,p’-DDT isomers and metabolites) was performed at the Department of Environmental Toxicology of National Institute of Hygiene in Warsaw. The analytical procedure 6 included extraction with n-hexane, clean-up with concentrated sulphuric acid and analysis was by gas chromatography with electron capture detector with ion-trap mass spectrometric confirmation. To assure the quality of the results, the laboratory simultaneously used the same method in the international proficiency testing scheme (UK FAPAS). In addition, certified reference materials and own fortified samples were routinely analyzed as a part of international quality assurance procedure. Results and discussion In all the samples analyzed, p,p’-DDE, p,p’-DDT and ß-HCH were present with p,p’-DDE, found to be dominant analyte. For this reason it is often used as a surrogate of past exposure to all sources of