Seafood as a dietary source of emerging organic contaminants. A case-study in tarragona county, spain
- Autores: Laura Trabalón Escoda
- Directores de la Tesis: Francesc Borrull Ballarin (dir. tes.), Eva Pocurull Aixalà (codir. tes.), Martí Nadal Lomas (codir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Rovira i Virgili ( España ) en 2017
- Idioma: español
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: María Esther Torres Padrón (presid.), Marta Calull Blanch (secret.), Nicholas Warner (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Ciencia y Tecnología Química por la Universidad Rovira i Virgili
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: hdl.handle.net TDX
- Resumen
Emerging organic contaminants (EOCs), a term which refers to chemical substances whose continuous emission into the environment may be hazardous for the environmental ecosystems and mankind, generally are lipophilic, bioaccumulative and semivolatile compounds. Some EOCs are produced massively in industrial processes, while others are released as subproducts of various activities, such as combustion. These compounds are found in several worldwide ecosystems as a result of the anthropogenic activities and this can affect human health due to their bioaccumulation through the food chain and their possible toxic effects.
The risks on human health derived from environmental exposure to EOCs continue being the subject of considerable research, regulation, and debate. It is well-known that human exposure to EOCs can mainly occur by inhalation of air, dust ingestion, dermal absorption and also by the daily intake of foodstuffs. Certain dietary habits can contribute to compromise health by being a source of exposure to environmental toxic contaminants. Many of EOCs are fat soluble, and therefore, any food which contains lipid often presents high levels of them. Although human diet embraces different types of food, it has been demonstrated that an intake based on seafood could be one of the main pathways for the absorption of chemical contaminants by the human body.
Thus, this Doctoral Thesis aims to contribute to increase the knowledge on the presence of various families of EOCs (synthetic musk fragrances, brominated flame retardants and benzothiazoles) in seafood samples widely consumed in Tarragona County, and perform the risk characterisation taking into account the dietary intake.
In the first section, three different analytical methods based on gas chromatography-ion trap-tandem mass spectrometry have been adapted or developed and successfully applied for the determination of each family of compounds in seafood samples. To remark that, benzothiazoles have been determined for the very first time in seafood samples. Then, risk characterisation has been assessed by considering different subpopulation groups divided by age and gender, and diverse intake scenarios.
In order to perform a more accurate risk assessment, an in vitro digestion has been evaluated to determine bioaccessibility, in the second section. Galaxolide (HHCB), the most widely used synthetic musk fragrance, has been the selected compound to perform it due to no related studies are available for. In addition, the most common cooking processes namely steaming and grilling, have been tested to know whether they do affect HHCB ingested concentration.
