HCH and DDT in surface extractable skin lipid as a measure of human exposure in India

Abstract

Organochlorine insecticides are usually determined in blood, urine, maternal milk or adipose tissue to determine exposure in human subjects. However, technical and ethical problem often prevent the collection of these samples under field conditions. The skin is rich in lipids and is a major storage site of halogenated hydrocarbons. Human skin lipids consist of triacyl glycerol, squalene, fatty acids and wax esters. HCH and DDT, like most organochlorines are lipid soluble and tend to accumulate in adipose tissue, and lipid rich organs, such as brain, liver and lipid fractions of biological membranes. Wolff (1984) has reported utilization of surface lipids as a non-invasive technique to estimate DDE in the human body and related contamination with DDE levels in serum. Recently, Sasaki et al (1991a) reported good correlation of beta-HCH and p,p'-DDE concentrations in skin lipids and adipose tissue and further used skin lipids as an index for the accumulation of organochlorine chemicals in the human body. We report the accumulation of HCH-isomers and DDT/DDT metabolites in skin lipid and its correlation with whole blood concentrations to investigate the use of skin lipids as a non-invasive technique to monitor HCH and DDT body burdens under field conditions.