DDT and its metabolites in breast milk from the Madeira River basin in the Amazon, Brazil

Until the 1990s the 1,1,1-trichloro-bis-2,2′-(4chlorophenyl) ethane (DDT) was sprayed in the walls of the house along the Madeira River basin, Brazilian Amazon, a region well known for its large number of malaria cases. In 1910, Oswaldo Cruz described the presence of malaria in 100% of the population living in some localities from the Madeira River basin. Data available in the literature point to the DDT contamination in fishes captured in Madeira River region. Fish is the major source of dietary protein to these people. DDT tends to accumulate in lipid rich tissues and is being eliminated by different events, including lactation. Considering the importance of feeding breast milk to the children, the associated risks of DDT exposure via breast milk intake to children must be assessed. This is the main objective of this work: to analyse the presence of the p, p′-DDT and its metabolites p, p′-DDE and p, p′-DDD in 69 human milk samples and to estimate the intake of DDT and its metabolite in terms of total DDT (total DDT = p, p′-DDE + p, p′-DDD + p, p′-DDT). All the samples showed contamination with DDT and its metabolites ranging from 25.4 to 9361.9 ng of total DDT/g of lipid (median = 369.6 ng of total DDT/g of lipid) and 8.7% of the estimated daily intake (EDI), in terms of total DDT, which was higher than the acceptable daily intake proposed by the WHO.