Quality of Pop Analysis Determination of Pbdes in Human Milk – Analysis and Quality Control -

Polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs) are widely used as flame retardants in polymer materials, textiles, electronic boards and various other materials. Technical PBDE preparations are produced as mixtures of mainly penta-, octaor decabromobiphenyl ethers. PBDEs are structurally similar to other environmental pollutants, such as dioxins and PCBs. They are lipophilic and persistent compounds and widespread in the environment. For certain congeners, bioaccumulation has been observed. Recent findings of increasing levels in humans showed that more detailed investigations of human milk (or other suitable matrices) will be required in order to evaluate the general human exposure to this group of environmental contaminants. Only a few data on PBDE levels in breast milk from Germany had been published. To fill the data gaps, in 2001 a controlled study was started to characterize the PBDE levels in human milk from Germany with special efforts to identify and quantify deca-BDE-209. 103 samples were analyzed in this study so far including 10 hidden pool samples provided by Federal Institute for Risk Assessment to ERGO laboratory (total number of samples finally will be 157 (including 14 hidden pool samples)). This paper describes the analytical procedure applied and emphasizes on the quality control procedure.