Abstract
To assess the status of human contamination and exposure to brominated flame retardants such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and polychlorinated biphenyls in Vietnamese E-waste recycling sites, human breast milk, dust and air samples were collected and employed for chemical analysis. Total dioxin-like activities and dioxin-related compounds in dust samples were measured by iin vitro bioassay and chemical analysis, respectively. In human breast milk samples, significantly higher concentrations of PBDEs were found in E-waste recycling sites than those found at the urban site. A specific accumulation of PBDEs on occupational exposure was observed in workers who are involved in E-waste recycling. We estimated the daily intake of contaminants and found high intakes of PBDEs in people living in and around the E-waste recycling sites. In particular, the values for children were about two times higher than that of adults. In the dust samples, higher dioxin-like activities were observed in E-waste recycling sites than at the urban site. In addition, polybrominated dibenzofurans were detected at higher concentrations in the dust from E-waste recycling sites and showed a significant contribution to total dioxin-like activities. On the other hand, the percentage of dioxin-like activities by unknown compounds was high in the dust samples, indicating significant contributions from unidentified AhR agonists.
