Teil 3: PCDD/F im Blutfett ausgewählter Personen

This study was designed to assess the degree of exposure to PCDD/F in 56 selected persons living in the vicinity of a former copper smelter located in Marsberg, Germany. The copper smelter was in operation until 1945. In 1991, high levels of PCDD/F were found particularly in materials from the slag dumps (10 000 – 100 000 ng TE/kg). The levels of PCDD/F in blood fat were used as parameters for individual PCDD/F exposure. Since only limited reference data for PCDD/F in human blood were available, blood samples of a reference group were analyzed in the same way. The criteria were collected from a group matched for sex, age (±3 years) and body mass. The median NATO/CCMS-Toxicity equivalency values (NATO/CCMS-TE-values) of the Marsberg group (43,2 pg NATO/CCMS-TE/g blood fat) and the reference group (43,0 pg NATO/CCMS-TE/g blood fat) were similar, whereas the arithmetic mean of the Marsberg group (52,7 pg NATO/CCMS-TE/g blood fat) was higher than that of the reference group (44,4 pg NATO/CCMS-TE/g blood fat). The frequency distribution of the individual TE-values of the Marsberg group was slightly shifted toward higher values. The individuals of the Marsberg group had significantly higher levels of PentaCDF, HexaCDF and HeptaCDF on average than the individuals of the reference group. On the basis of TE-values, the majority of the individuals from Marsberg did not have an increased body burden of PCDD/F. However, some individuals could be identified with TE-values exceeding background levels ranging up to 231 pg NATO/CCMS-TE/g blood fat. Although it must be assumed that the unusual congener pattern found in many of the test subjects is a result of ingestion of contaminated slag material or soil, the findings of this study could not verify this fact.