Brominated and fluorinated organic pollutants in the breast milk of first-time Irish mothers: is there a relationship to levels in food?

Brominated flame retardants - polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs), hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) and others - have been measured in 11 pooled breast milk samples from 109 first-time mothers in Ireland. Additionally, the study has measured levels of polybrominated dibenzo-p-dioxins and furans (PBDD/Fs), mixed halogenated dioxins (PXCC/Fs) and biphenyls (PXBs), polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs) and perfluoroalkylated substances (PFAS) in these samples. The mean sum of 19 PBDEs including BDE-209 was 4.

Multiple Myeloma and lifetime occupation: results from the EPILYMPH study.

Background: The EPILYMPH study applied a detailed occupational exposure assessment approach to a large multi-centre case-control study conducted in six European countries. This paper analysed multiple myeloma (MM) risk associated with level of education, and lifetime occupational history and occupational exposures, based on the EPILYMPH data set.

Methods: 277 MM cases and four matched controls per each case were included.

Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in breast milk of first-time Irish mothers: impact of the 2008 dioxin incident in Ireland.

The 2008 dioxin incident in Ireland resulted in elevated concentrations of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), dibenzofurans (PCDFs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in Irish pork and pork products, due to the consumption of contaminated animal feed by pigs. In order to investigate any resulting impact on the Irish population, these contaminants were measured in pooled breast milk samples from 109 first-time mothers, collected in 2010. A comparison of the results with similar data from 2002 revealed generally lower concentrations of PCDD/Fs and dioxin-like PCBs in the 2010 samples, confirming the declining trend reported by many authors.

Variation in DNA repair genes XRCC3, XRCC4, XRCC5 and susceptibility to myeloma.

Cytogenetic analysis in myeloma reveals marked chromosomal instability. Both widespread genomic alterations and evidence of aberrant class switch recombination, the physiological process that regulates maturation of the antibody response, implicate the DNA repair pathway in disease pathogenesis. We therefore assessed 27 SNPs in three genes (XRCC3, XRCC4 and XRCC5) central to DNA repair in patients with myeloma and controls from the EpiLymph study and from an Irish hospital registry (n = 306 cases, 263 controls).