Human biomonitoring of PCDDs, PCDFs, and PCBs in women living in a Northern Italy industrial area.

In Brescia , a highly industrialized city in the Lombardy Region (Northern Italy) classified as a SIN (Contaminated Site of National Interest), a human biomonitoring study was carried out on breast milk of two groups of women residing in areas with presumably different levels of exposure to polychlorodibenzo-p-dioxins, polychlorodibenzofurans, and polychlorobiphenyls. This study was aimed at evaluating the possible difference between women living in Brescia and women living far from it but in the same Region. Between 2016 and 2018, 82 women were enrolled (41 "exposed" subjects and 41 "not exposed"), breast milk samples were collected, and a specific questionnaire was administered to the donors.

Determinants of exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls in the Italian population in the last decades.

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are industrial products extensively used in the past. Because of their widespread presence and toxic effects, the international community adopted control measures to reduce their release into the environment. Currently, PCB concentrations are decreasing, but humans are still exposed.

The longitudinal biomonitoring of residents living near the waste incinerator of Turin: Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon metabolites after three years from the plant start-up.

The waste-to-energy (WTE) incinerator plant located in the Turin area (Italy) started to recover energy from the combustion of municipal solid waste in 2013. A health surveillance program was implemented to evaluate the potential health effects on the population living near the plant. This program included a longitudinal biomonitoring to evaluate temporal changes of some environmental pollutants, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), in residents living in areas near the Turin incinerator (exposed group, E) compared to those observed in subjects living far from the plant (not exposed group, NE).