Estimating exposures to persistent pollutants in infants

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Scope

How to estimate the persistent pollutant intake of infants?

Definition

Infants are not consuming solid food with persistent pollutants (e.g. fish is the main source of dioxins), however they receive the pollutants via mother's milk. What is the relationship between pollutant concentration of a mother, breast feeding time, and the exposure of an infant?

Result

Exposure via breast-feeding

AUC = C * (1-e-k*t)/ke ,

where AUC is area under the curve C and the duration of breast feeding, C is the measured concentration of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/furans as international toxic equivalents, k_e is elimination constant of polychlorinated dibenzodioxins/furans to milk (k_e = -0.2877/year) and t is time of nursing (in years).