ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Hygienic assessment of public health risks caused by food contamination with organochlorine pesticides

About authors

Samara State Medical University, Samara, Russia

Correspondence should be addressed: Dmitry O. Gorbachev
Chapaevskaya st., 89, Samara, 443099; ur.umsmas@vehcabrog.o.d

About paper

Author contribution: Concept and design of the study — Gorbachev DO, Sazonova OV. Data collection and processing — Gorbachev DO, Gavryushin MYu, Borodina LM. Text writing — Gorbachev DO, Sazonova OV. Editing — Gavryushin MYu, Borodina LM.

Compliance with ethical standards: Each participant signed a voluntary informed consent form. The study conformed to the biomedical ethics requirements and did not endanger the participants.

Received: 2021-03-16 Accepted: 2021-03-25 Published online: 2021-04-19
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Accumulation of anthropogenic contaminants in food is one of the by-products of economic and other activities practiced by humankind. This study aimed to analyze the public health risks associated with ingestion of organochlorine pesticides (HCH, DDT) widely used in agriculture. The risk assessment was enabled by Nutri-prof software package; the data collected covered actual dietary patterns of 1798 people (823 men and 975 women) aged 18 to 65. Assessment of the level of contamination of food with organochlorine pesticides relied on the results of analysis of 16510 food product samples belonging to various groups. Bread and bread products, vegetables and melons, potatoes, milk and dairy products were shown to be the source of HCH in the amounts causing the greatest non-cancerogenic risk associated therewith. The list of products delivering the largest amounts of DDT into the body and thus posing the greatest non-cancerogenic risk associated therewith includes bread and bread products, vegetables and melons, meat and meat products, milk and dairy products. With the median DDT and HCH concentrations factored in, the highest joint cancerogenic risk level a person may be exposed to reaches the third range, which is acceptable for occupational groups. From the age of 45, consumption of bread and bread products leads to the related endocrine system risks growing beyond background levels, and from 65, these risks, considered negligible up to this age, become moderate. The results of this study support effectiveness of the sanitary and epidemiological food safety control system; the considered methodological approach to risk assessment allows making timely management decisions that account for the nature of work and dietary peculiarities.

Keywords: health risk, food, evolutionary risk model, organochlorine pesticides, DDT, HCH

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