pp′DDE contamination of the blood and diet in central European populations Silvana Galassi a, ⁎ , Roberta Bettinetti b , Maria Chiara Neri a , Jerzy Falandysz c , Wanda Kotecka c , Isabella King d , Susan Lo d , Dietrich Klingmueller d , Ulrike Schulte-Oehlmann e a Biology Department, University of Milan, Via Celoria 26, 20133, Milano, Italy b Chemical and Environmental Sci. Department, University of Insubria, Como, Italy c Department of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, University of Gdańsk, Poland d Clinical Biochemistry Department, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany e Ecology and Evolution Department, J.W. Göethe Universität, Frankfurt, Germany ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: Received 8 November 2006 Received in revised form 12 September 2007 Accepted 13 September 2007 In this study, the actual risk of DDT pollution to two European human populations was assessed by analysing DDT residues in the diet, which is the main route of pollution for man, and in the blood and placenta, which are components affecting organs and new generations, respectively. The Gdańsk region was selected as representative of areas subjected to a recent DDT ban in Europe, while a rural area in Western Germany was considered representative of European regions where DDT use and production ceased many years ago. The results of three food series of food sampling carried out with market basket methods during 2003 showed that pp′DDE, which is by far the main constituent of DDT residues, was present in foods of animal origin and in cereals at rather high concentrations in both countries, and that a risk for human health cannot be excluded. The total daily intake was higher in Poland than in Germany, and agrees with the finding that body tissues, on the average, are more polluted in donors from Poland than those from Germany. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: pp′DDE Blood Diet Market basket Placenta Germany Poland 1. Introduction Men may be directly exposed to chlorinated pesticides mainly through diet and professionally from involvement in manu- facturing plants and agricultural applications. Although the use of pp′DDT in EU countries stopped in the seventies, pro- duction did not cease because pp′DDT is still used as a starting compound for the production of dicofol. In other areas of the globe DDT is still strongly used: very recently the World Health Organization (WHO, 2006) promoted indoor use of DDT for controlling malaria not only in epidemic areas but also in areas with constant and high malaria transmission, including throughout Africa. Furthermore, huge amounts of obsolete pesticides, including DDT, are stockpiled and await disposal. In Poland, 60,000 tons of old pesticides stored in graveyards have resulted in the con- tamination of surrounding soils (Holoubek et al., 2000). Banned organochlorine pesticides stocked in Bulgaria totalled about 35 t in 1996, a relative high quantity compared to the small territory of this country (Tasheva, 1998). Therefore, while a general de- crease of pesticide concentrations is observed in environmen- tal samples collected all over Europe (Holoubek et al., 2003), SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 390 (2008) 45 – 52 ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 0250314838; fax: +39 0250314862. E-mail address: silvana.galassi@unimi.it (S. Galassi). 0048-9697/$ – see front matter © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2007.09.029 available at www.sciencedirect.com www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv