2011 Volume 53 Issue 2 Pages 115-122
Background: In Brazil, DDT was used to control malaria-transmitting mosquitoes from 1945 to 1997. Owing to concerns about the potential adverse health consequences of long-term exposures to DDT, workers of the National Foundation of Health (FNS) who had taken part in malaria control operations in the Amazon region were monitored for blood levels of DDT as well as for their health status between 1997 and 2001. Objectives: To evaluate blood levels of DDT/DDE and elimination half-life (t1/2) of pp'-DDE in malaria control personnel. Methods: Levels of DDT and pp'-DDE were measured in the blood serum of 119 public health workers (32-67 yr old, 117 males) from Pará state-Brazil. Serum levels of DDT/DDE were determined by gas chromatography with electron capture detection. Results: Blood serum levels of -Σ-DDT and pp'-DDE (mean ± SD) were as follows (μg/l): February 1997 (N=110), 231.5 ± 366.4 (156.9 ± 236.8 as pp'-DDE); February 1998 (N=116), 126.4 ± 86.6 (83.0 ± 54.6 as pp'-DDE); May 2001 (N=117), 50.4 ± 53.3 (39.4 ± 37.6 as pp'-DDE). The half-life (mean ± SD) of pp'-DDE was 29.5 ± 22.7 mo. Conclusions: Concentrations of Σ-DDT/ pp'-DDE in the blood serum of malaria control workers were much higher than levels found in the general population in Brazil and elsewhere. The half-life of pp'-DDE (29.5 mo) estimated for this group of occupationally exposed male adults was shorter than t1/2 values previously reported for environmentally exposed subjects.
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