Improved Assessment in Environmental Monitoring of POPs : Using monitoring data from the aquatic ecosystem and human milk

Sammanfattning: The thesis deals with several aspects of monitoring of persistent organic contaminants (POPs) in biological matrices, for example choice of sample, sampling design, and statistical treatment of data both for temporal and spatial trends and for compliance towards a set target value. The efficiency has been evaluated through statistical power analyses. Contaminant data from more than 4 decades from the Swedish National Monitoring Programs for monitoring of contaminants in biota (marine, freshwater and human health), has been quantitatively evaluated both temporally and spatially and for compliance. The aim was also to evaluate the suitability of different matrices, i.e. herring (Clupea harengus), guillemot (Uria aalge) egg, cod (Gadus morhua), perch (Perca fluviatilis), eelpout (Zoarces viviparous), blue mussel (Mytilus edulis), pike (Esox lucius), Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) and human milk, for monitoring of POPs with the overall aim to improve the assessment within monitoring programs.The results show that variation can be reduced by using pooled samples including more specimens but fewer chemical analyses, which in turn generate a higher statistical power to a lower cost, at least in cases where the cost of collection and sampling is considerably lower than the cost of chemical analysis. However, there are also a number of advantages using individual samples, such as information of sample variance and maximum value, which allows the choice of an appropriate central measure and direct adjustment of confounding factors.Generally, the levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes (DDTs), hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs) and hexachlorobenzene (HCB) have decreased both in marine and freshwater biota but concentrations are still higher in the Baltic compared to e.g. the North Sea. The levels of dioxinlike-PCBs and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) have decreased in human milk over time, but not to the same extent in fish and guillemot egg from the Baltic and the freshwater environment. This may be explained by the dietary advice developed by the Swedish Food Administration with the goal that girls, reproductive aged, and pregnant women should eat less food containing high levels of PCDD/Fs. Thus the levels in milk could continue to decrease at the same rate although the temporal trend in the environment has slowed down or leveled out.The most essential regarding the choice of species and matrices for contaminant monitoring, is that the species and organ fit the purpose of the monitoring.