Organic pollutants in food, environment and human biomonitoring studies

Industrial contaminants in the food chain

Human population uses a number of chemicals on a daily basis that can be released into the environment, where they can have negative effects and persist for a long time. These compounds can be found in various environmental compartments, including water, air, or soil, which together with sediments can represent a significant reservoir of persistent substances. Undesirable substances penetrate into environment by various ways, including atmospheric deposition, the use of contaminated water for irrigation or through accidental spills.

Our research group has been involved in the analysis of environmental contaminants for a long time. From the group of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), we focus on brominated flame retardants. (BFR), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), chlorinated paraffins (CPs), perfluoroalkylated substances (PFAS), but also polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), phthalates, UV filters, organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs). In many studies, we monitor these chemicals not only in food and food supplements, but also in environmental compartments such as air, dust, sediments, soil, water, etc. Recently, we have been analyzing these compounds in food contact materials and other object of everyday use as they represent significant sources of human exposure to these chemicals. Within the research projects, we develop the required multianalytical methods, in which gas or liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry is used as an instrumental technique.

Biomonitoring, exposom

Today, humans are exposed to mixtures of chemicals that are released into the environment from various commercial and industrial applications. Some of them can have an adverse effect on human health. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor the quality of the environment and to assess its impact on humans. For this purpose, human biological monitoring (biomonitoring) is applied and provides, which provides data on the amount of chemicals and their metabolites in the body by analyzing suitable biological samples, such as blood serum / plasma, urine, breast milk, etc.

Our research group has been involved in European biomonitoring for many years. We develop multianalytical procedures based on chromatography and mass spectrometry, which meet the requirements of ultratrace analysis for the determination of different groups of environmental contaminants in one analysis. The group of persistent organohalogenated pollutants are represented by brominated flame retardants, polychlorinated biphenyls, chlorinated pesticides, chlorinated paraffins, perfluoroalkylated compounds, but also polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, phthalates, UV filters, organophosphate flame retardants, including their metabolites.