Exposure of general population to PBDEs: a progressive Total Diet Study in South Korea

Abstract

The levels of 24 polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in Korean foods following a progressive Total Diet Study (TDS) were assessed, from which dietary exposure could be estimated. The experimental design comprised 250 samples of 96 types of representative food, all were either cooked by commonly cooking methods in Korea or raw edible. The results showed that PBDEs were widely contaminated in foodstuffs with the highest concentrations in plant oils, fishes and shellfishes. The cooking processes seemed to have some certain effects on the fate of PBDEs. Of all the congeners, BDE-47 was the most predominant in almost all food items excepted for meats where BDE-207 took the lead. The existence of nona-BDEs at a significant level indicated that Korea environments are still highly contaminated by deca-BDE. Daily dietary intake of PBDEs was estimated as 62.66 ng d-1 or 1.00 ng kg-1 bw d-1 using an average mean weight of Korean adults. The highest PBDE intake was observed in the 30-39 year old group (1.11 ng kg-1 bw d-1) and gradually decreased as age increased. Fishes and shellfishes were the largest contributors to the dietary intake, followed by meats, vegetables, cereals and dairy products. Overall, this study suggest that the TDS approach using foods in the table-ready form should be used for a better estimation of dietary exposure to PBDEs and more studies should be carried out to understand the mechanisms of PBDE changes during cooking processes.