Cutarelli, Anna (2014) Innovative approaches for evaluation of dietary exposure to toxic persistent and emerging contaminants. [Tesi di dottorato]

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Persistent, Bioaccumulative and Toxic (PBT) Contaminants are toxic substances mainly released into the environment as a result of human activities (eg, industrial production, agro-animal husbandry practices, waste production/disposal). They are equipped with a high intrinsic stability that allows them to remain unchanged in the environment for a long time, undergoing a wide geographical spread between environmental compartments (air, water, soil and biota) and accumulating in living organisms to harmful levels for both human health and ecosystem (www.epa.gov/pbt). Population exposure to these PBT contaminants mainly takes place through food (Pazefall, 2002), therefore their monitoring is fundamental for Public Health. The research described in this doctoral thesis mainly concerned the identification of some of these contaminants in meals, as well as actually consumed by the population. The main objective of the research activity was the development of a method to determine the real contribution of the daily diet to the toxic and persistent contaminants exposure for people living in different geographical areas of Italy. In particular, the interest has been directed to the categories of substances in the families of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins and furans (PCDDs, PCDFs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). Our attention was focused on Total diet studies (TDS) and Duplicate diet studies (DDS), through the analysis of canteens and restaurants meals from Italian adults and children and the analysis of double portions of all meals (24h) prepared at home by some adults respectively. Sampling was carried out through the selection of six different types of meals, depending on the following different dietary habits: consumption of baby food by toddlers aged 9-12 months (Baby food, BF); consumption of meals in school canteens for children attending nursery and primary school (age 4-9 years), and canteens for adults (aged 18-64 years); consumption of fast food meals by adults (Fast Foods, FF); consumption of food prepared at home by adults (Duplicate diet, DD); consumption of meals by adults that observe a vegetarian lifestyle (Vegetarian diet, V); consumption of "Sundays meals " at the restaurant by adults (Restaurant meals, RM). In particular, canteen meals were collected in collaboration with four Italian primary schools (Ferrara, Perugia, Genoa-1, Genoa-2), a nursery school (Portici, NA) and an office canteen (Brescia). All the composites were analyzed by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (HRGC-HRMS for PCDD/F and PCB and by HRGC-LRMS for PBDE). Analysis of the obtained data revealed no exposure beyond the legal limits for the examined population, the estimates were lower even than those of the rest of the European population. Only for some restaurant meals RM higher values compared to the general trend were obtained, probably caused by the additional presence, in the above menu, of meat based dressing re-fill in the first courses (i.e.tagliatelle alla bolognese and agnolotti) and of dessert prepared with milk and dairy products. Foods of animal origin, in fact, generally show higher levels of bioaccumulative pollutants compared to foods of plant origin (EFSA 2011a, 2012b EFSA). This explanation is supported by the lower levels of contaminants found in the vegetarian meal (V). For all three categories of PBT contaminants (dioxins, furans, PCBs and PBDEs) a higher value was obtained babies and children meals, in line with the general view which explains that they should be more exposed than the adults because of greater consumption of food relative to their body weight (EFSA 2012A). Due to the complexity and expensiveness of conducting long-term studies, such as TDS, the analysis of composites as result of pooled meals may represent a first cost-effective screening useful to assess persistent organic pollutants intake through food as actually consumed. In order to refine the dietary exposure assessment it may be useful to perform such screening on regular basis thus reducing possible uncertainties related to the meals representativeness also on seasonal basis.

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